HARRINGTON] INDIAN NAMES AROUND SANTA FE, N. M. 345
CERRO DE LOS BURROS [3:11]
The great mountain northwest of Abiquiu and across the Chama river from it, is called in Spanish Cerro de los Burros, for wild burros were formerly abundant there. The Tewa name on the other hand tells of the good pinones which were there gathered : T'omayop- 'i n i7, good pinon mountain (t'o, pinon; mayo, excellent; p'i n ?7, mountain) .
CHAMA [5:7]
The writer was guided by San Juan Indians to the old pueblo ruin of Tsa n ma n , which has given the name to both the Chama river and to Chamita hamlet. Tsa n ma n ruin occupies a low mesa on the eastern bank of the Chama river, a mile and a half southeast of the mouth of El Rito creek and fully ten miles northwest of its linguistic offspring Chamita. The name is said to mean 'where they wrestled' (tsa n ma n , to have wrestled). Tsa n ma n must once have been an important pueblo, but had been forgotten until it was known to no whites and to but few Tewa, although its name lived on, its origin quite unknown, generalized to cover the whole Chama river, and again in specialized Spanish diminutive form as Chamita. Father Zarate-Salmeron writes Zama, 1 the other early records all show Chama. Apparently at the time of these records the name had already become extended in Spanish to apply to the whole Chama region anoj river.
CHAMA RIVER (Large Features 12]
But among the Tewa Tsa n ma n is applied only to the locality of the pueblo ruin. The Chama river is in Tewa P'op'i n r;, red river (p'o, water, river; p'i n r/ for p'i'i 11 ^: p'i, red; 'i n r/, gender postfix). The Rio Grande is frequently red for miles below the confluence because of the water discharged by the Chama. Bandelier learned that the Chama in turn gets its red water from Coyote creek [i 129] : "The branches of which the Chama is formed are the Coyote [i 129] in the west, the Gallinas [i 124] north of west, and the Nutrias [i 114] north. It is said that the waters of the first are red, those of the Gallinas white, and those of the Nutrias limpid. According as one
1 Quoted by Bandelier, Final Report, pt. n, p. 60, 1892.
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