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J. W. Powell - Canyons of the Colorado
decoration; then the women wore little basket bonnets decorated with feathers, and the men wore
headdresses made of the skins of ducks, geese, eagles, and other large birds. Sometimes they would
prepare the skin of the head of the elk or deer, or of a bear or mountain lion or wolf, for a headdress. For
very cold weather both men and women were provided with togas for their protection. Sometimes the
men would have a bearskin or elkskin for a toga; more often they made their togas by piecing together
the skins of wolves, mountain lions, wolverines, wild cats, beavers, and otters. The women sometimes
made theirs of fawnskins, but rabbitskin robes were far more common. These rabbitskins were tanned
with the fur on, and cut into strips; then cords were made of the fiber of wild flax or yucca plants, and
round these cords the strips of rabbitskin were rolled, so that they made long ropes of rabbitskin coils
with a central cord of vegetal fiber; then these coils were woven in parallel strings with cross strands of
fiber. The robe when finished was usually about five or six feet square, and it made a good toga for a
cold day and a warm blanket for the night.
The Ute Indians, like all the Indians of North America, have a wealth of mythic stories. The heroes of
these stories are the beasts, birds, and reptiles of the region, and the themes of the stories are the doings
of these mythic beasts - the ancients from whom the present animals have descended and degenerated.
The primeval animals were wonderful beings, as related in the lore of the Utes. They were the creators
and controllers of all the phenomena of nature known to these simple-minded people. The Utes are
zootheists. Each little tribe has its Shaman, or medicine man, who is historian, priest, and doctor. The
lore of this Shaman is composed of mythic tales of ancient animals. The Indians are very skillful actors,
and they represent the parts of beasts or reptiles, wearing masks and imitating the ancient zoic gods. In
temples walled with gloom of night and illumed by torch fires the people gather about their Shaman, who
tells and acts the stories of creation recorded in their traditional bible. When fever prostrates one of the
tribe the Shaman gathers the actors about the stricken man, and with weird dancing, wild ululation, and
ecstatic exhortation the evil spirit is driven from the body. Then they have their ceremonies to pray for
the forest fruits, for abundant game, for successful hunting, and for prosperity in war.
CHAPTER III. MOUNTAINS AND PLATEAUS.
Green River has its source in Fremont's Peak, high up in the Wind River Mountains among glacial lakes
and mountain cascades. This is the real source of the Colorado River, and it stands in strange contrast
with the mouth of that stream where it pours into the Gulf of California. The general course of the river is
from north to south and from great altitudes to the level of the sea. Thus it runs "from land of snow to
land of sun." The Wind River Mountains constitute one of the most imposing ranges of the United States.
Fremont's Peak, the culminating point, is 13,790 feet above the level of the sea. It stands in a wilderness
of crags. Here at Fremont's Peak three great rivers have their sources: Wind River flows eastward into the
Mississippi; Green River flows southward into the Colo-orado; and Gros Ventre River flows
northwestward into the Columbia. From this dominating height many ranges can be seen on every hand.
About the sources of the Platte and the Big Horn, that flow ultimately into the Gulf of Mexico, great
ranges stand with their culminating peaks among the clouds; and the mountains that extend into
Yellowstone Park, the land of geyser wonders, are seen. The Yellowstone Park is at the southern
extremity of a great system of mountain ranges, the northern Rocky Mountains, sometimes called the
Geyser Ranges. This geological province extends into British America, but its most wonderful scenery is
in the upper Yellowstone basin, where geysers bombard the heavens with vapor distilled in subterranean
depths. The springs which pour out their boiling waters are loaded with quartz, and the waters of the
springs, flowing away over the rocks, slowly discharge their fluid magma, which crystallizes in beautiful
forms and builds jeweled basins that hold pellucid waters.
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