DON DIEGO or The Pueblo Indian Uprising of 1680 [SOLD]

DON DIEGO or The Pueblo Indian Uprising of 1680

By Albert B. Reagan

Publisher: The Alice Harriman Company, New York, 1914

Hardback, first edition, 1914.  352 pages. Very good condition

PREFACE

 “Soon after I became United States Indian Farmer at Jemez, New Mexico, in 1899, the Jemez Indians had a masked dance.  As the dance occurred on mail day they stopped the mail carrier and would not allow him to proceed on his journey.  This they did in accordance with their custom not to allow a white man to enter or to pass through the village while they were thus occupied.  The stopping of the mail led to the arrest of the Indian governor, José Romero.  He, as a result of the preliminary examination, was bound over to the United States’ grand jury which was to meet the next March, six months after the crime was committed.  Taking pity on the Indian, I bailed him out and took him back to the village.  From that time on throughout the winter months the Jemez were very friendly to me.  They allowed me to visit their performance at will, though they did not send me special invitations to do so.  At the trial in March the governor was found guilty and fined the full extent of the law for interfering with the carrying of the mail.  As soon as the sentence was handed down, I went to the judge, and after a great deal of argument, persuaded him to suspend the sentence upon the promise of good behavior.  So I returned to the village with the governor a second time. 

“In the evening after our return the ‘principals’ of the place met, and, as the greatest favor they could bestow upon me, they invited me in the name of the tribe to visit any and all of their ceremonies, both open and secret.  They stated further that they would let me know whenever they had any special ceremony.  This, with but one exception, they carried out to the letter.  Acting upon the invitation, I visited each of the estufas at will.  I was often with the Indians in them six nights in a week.  I also examined the ‘blind closets’ and secret rooms in their dwellings.  Furthermore, night after night, I listened to the legends told around their firesides.  Thus I was enabled to see and hear many things of interest.

“Later I had charge of the Cibicu (sp) division of the Fort Apache Indian reservation and had access to all of their performances, both religious and medicinal.  All these, together with the Spanish accounts of the discovery and subjugation of New Mexico, and the Indian myths and traditions concerning same, I have used in the following story, believing that it will prove of interest to the public, while laying no claim to absolute historical accuracy other than in descriptions.  Indian customs vary but little and what took place in this century is practically the same as what occurred in the seventeenth century. This is not a history but a novel with an historical thread with gaps filled in to make up the story.  Moreover, the writer has used the novelist’s license to bring out the effect desired.  It must also be understood that the word slave as used in this book is used to mean any person who labors without pay, as a forced servant, a peon, or a convict.

                                   Albert B. Reagan