They speak different dialects and sometimes broken Spanish. For the government of their communities they select a Cacique and a council, and in war are led by a Capitan. In religious rites they mingle Catholicism and Paganism. Their villages are very regularly built; though sometimes, there is but one large house of several stories, with a vast number of small rooms, in which all the inhabitants of the pueblo are quartered! Instead of doors in front, traps are made on the roofs of their dwellings to which they ascend by a ladder that is withdrawn during the night so as to secure them from surprise or attack. Their dress consists of moccasins, short breeches and a woollen jacket or blanket; their black hair is usually worn long, while bows and arrows together with a lance and sometimes a gun compose their weapons.[1]
The late Governor, Charles Bent, in a report to the United States Government from Santa Fé in 1846, presents the following statement of the tribes and numbers of the Wild Indians, who reside or roam in the regions which were then supposed to be comprised in New Mexico. Bent's perfect familiarity with a district in which he had so long dwelt or traded, renders his enumeration of these savages an important historical fact in the history of the newly acquired Territory.
| Apaches or Jicarillas, | 100 | lodges comprising | 500 | souls. |
| Apaches proper. | 800 or 900 | "" | 5,500 | " |
| Utahs, Grande Unita rivers, | 600 | "" | 3,000 | " |
| Utahs, Southern, | 200 | "" | 1,400 | " |
| Navajos, | 1,000 | families" | 7,000 | " |
| Moques, | 350 | "" | 2,450 | " |
| Comanches, | 2,500 | lodges " | 12,000 | " |
| Cayugas, | 400 | "" | 2,000 | " |
| Cheyennes, | 300 | "" | 1,500 | " |
| Arapahoes, | 400 | "" | 1,600 | " |
| ——— | ||||
| Total, | 36,950 | " |
According to a report made in October, 1849, by Mr. James S. Calhoun, Indian Agent at Santa Fé, the following summary of the Pueblos, and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, is based on a census
- ↑ We have used the full account given by Dr. Wislizenius, with but slight alterations of his language, because it is the most complete, consistent and satisfactory that we have encountered in our researches. We could neither improve its method or condense its matter. He is a close observer; an accurate thinker; an industrious traveller, and relates always from his personal observation
