on Native American mining of turquoise:
I may be all wet on this, but stories were told
in my home town of Cerrillos, New Mexico of Santo
Domingo and other Navajo tribal members mining
(digging) turquoise in the Turquoise Flats area
south of Santa Fe. The stories linked the native
miners with the Pueblo Revolt and the knotted
rope let's-all-strike-at-once legend (loosen one
knot each full moon).
I know personally of one turquoise mine there,
because I climbed down into it many times when I
was very young and walking around those little
hills with a dog. Turquoise Flats is a new name
for the area. The mine I knew is SxSW of the
penitentiary on old highway 10 leading south from
Santa Fe across the back side of Sandia Mountain
onto Tijeras Canyon area east of Albuquerque.
This is only hearsay, stories that come from an
afternoon jawing at The Whatnot Shop in Cerrillos
(just a rock shop) --- not an anthropologically
authenticated aspect of history. But OTOH, I've
been to Shalako (Zuni) dances forty years ago
where no one would talk to the anthropologists.
They iced them out. I thought it was odd at the
time.
Penny Sidoli
Santa Barbara
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
>From homework help to love advice, Yahoo! Experts has your answer.
http://experts.yahoo.com/
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|