| Show BROWSING AROUND AMONG BOOKS t. t A habit A silly habit habit habit- that of browsing around among books Get information at first hand theres there's never anything in books Oh I had just been browsing around in geology Alot A Alot Alot lot of fun The morning after some Ute Indians came into my office and I opened the volume on the big Rainbow Bridge down near Navaho Mountain and laying the photo half tone before them I asked r What is the name of the Rainbow in Ute Quick as a flash an Indian girl who had been educated educated educated ed ed- ed- ed in our schools replied Pah la But pronounce it right for our word for is almost like it it- it Pah la What does the word mean in Ute Pah water lo shine with colors like oil on water Now that I Ive I've ve ye marked the volume on geology with that dope the book is is transformed from a dry dull meandering and useless thing of science into a living speaking interesting volume replete with human interest Lets Let's t try another item In another book entitled The Geology of Capitol Capit l Reef the word p pis is used as the name of the Fluted Wall formation near Torrey But I had read in Willis T. T Lees Lee's Stories Stories Stories Stor ies in Stone that Major Powell an interested student student stu dent in Indian words and religion had named that rock mock in honor of two Indian words the Ute Indian culture man hero and the weapons of so the combination says in Ute The weapons of Why Why did Major Major Major Ma Ma- jor Powell want to fix in our language The Weapons ons of Because in the shale great petrified logs togs are found which in Ute and in Navaho mythology were the arrow shafts the very weapons preserved on the ground from the time of the monster gods who were so big so magnificent that they shot actual TREES as arrows at their foes and the blood running from that encounter is the lava flows we all see see see- seethe the blood of the monster bad men ogres killed by the gods which ran out on the ground and solidified If books are that interesting Ill I'll read one one one- some day So I said to the Indians what is the meaning of that word in Ute The reply was Timpe rock Y You o know that running water water running on rocks We mean the river river river riv riv- er er the stream but white folks mean the mountain All wrong So it was the Ute word for the Amer Amer- American American American ican Fork river which is steep and rushes foaming over ver rocks When Escalante came the people in that area were the Timpe no the people who live near the swiftly flowing stream which dashes wildly over its rocky bed So I went to another another another an an- other book I have which says means Sleeping Princess and I wrote underneath that statement Oh Hell that such damned trash should be put into a And believed for years despite all the refutation of its silliness by careful writers not misled by emotion silliness or the attempt to attach attach attach at at- tach glamour to all things Indian Such rot as in that book book book- Sleeping Princess My Eye If I had written that I would not for shame ever eversee eversee eversee see or talk to another Indian How they must gurgle gurgle gurgle gur gur- gle with suppressed mirth when they read Sleeping Sleeping Sleep ing inq Princess in a book which they study at school Books is books books- and some are trash Maior Powell the intrepid one-armed one veteran of the Civil War par Kai in Ute means one armed So we have a wits par and anda a mountain wits par Peak Peak Peak- both named after after after af af- af- af ter the famed one-armed one explorer My Indian informant informant informant in in- formant said My grandfather saw one day day day- he came off Pa-go Pa the BIG river the Colo Calo- Colorado rado river river river- my grandfather saw him Yes some books are Worth read read- ing And some are are are- And all that r just from reading a little geology What would a college course in in it do A can of l brown paint and a string gee for me Reversion back bpck to the Ute belief in his weapons the blood of his victims and a br brown giggle over the Sleeping Beauty trash The labor situation on the f farms aims is acute Help is being brought by hiring Indians to weed and todo to todo todo do those other farming operations which they are capable of Indians J Japs aps s Mexicans The man on the farm glad to get any kind Boys of young age helping dad Girls assisting And the crops like Victory wont wait for the nation that is is late Locally we have gone many weeks without an adequate rain Slight rainfall not enough for an irrigation irrigation- more an irritation Rains this fall and snows this winter must be ample t to thoroughly stop the former drought conditions Some few find the water they formerly rented now sold l |
