ORIGIN OF THE MUD DANCE
as told by Sam Akeah to
Paul R. Franke

Sam Akeah, our Indian foreman, has been with us for many years. He is full blooded Navaho, a member of the Bitter Water clan and has been a very reliable informant and interpreter in directing his tribesmen who are at work in Mesa Verde National Park.

During one of my visits at the hogan within the Park, Sam asked if I had ever seen the "Mud Dance." Upon receiving a negative reply he proceeded to tell the story as it had been told him many times by his grandfathers, who in turn had heard it from their grandfather. The accuracy of time relationship may be questioned as Archeologists, Ethnologists and Historians are in agreement that the Navaho Tribe did not reach this section of the Southwest until several hundred years after the abandonment of the Great Cliff and Surface Pueblos of the Four-Corners Region.

"Many many moons have passed since the reign of the Great Chief Long Hair. At the pueblo which today is known as the Aztec Ruins, Chief Long Hair had scalped many chiefs from the surrounding country. As time passed different ones came from far and near to seek the scalp of this great Chief Long Hair.

A certain old man from the west of the Aztec wished to have the scalp of Chief Long Hair. Now this old man, Old Man White Tail Feather was a warrior in his younger days and, being old now, was unable to fight and offered his daughters to any young warrior who would bring to him the scalp of the Great Chief Long Hair.

When the people got together to plan war against the Great Chief Long Hair, the Old Lady Knife, who lived on the Hard Knife Mountains, heard about the daughters of the Chief White Tail Feather, so she called her grand-sons to her and told them that she had medicine which they could partake of and which would enable them to get easily the scalp of the Great Chief Long Hair. The old woman started with her sons and carrying a big basket over her shoulder she and her grandsons arrived just as the people were preparing for an attack on the Pueblo of Aztec. She then prepared the medicine and when the young men had received this they gave a demonstration of how each one would scalp the Great Chief Long Hair, and this demonstration is what is now called the Mud Dance.

After the war the young men brought the scalps before the Old Man White Tail Feather, but alas, there was not the scalp of Chief Long Hair among them. Just at this moment two old men came before Old Man White Tail Feather. They were the God of the Bear and the God of the Snake in disguise and they presented the old man with the scalp of the Great Chief Long Hair. This did not please the Old Man White Tail Feather, they being old men, and he refused to give them his daughters. He told his daughters that instantly they should attend the scalp dance and there choose whomever they wished for a husband."

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In compliance with a Service order, March 12, 1935, the new form of spelling ARCHEOLOGY will be used. Correction on the cover page will be made with the next issue.

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