Article titled "The Poet Laureate writes from his Green Verdugo Hills." Article by John Steven McGroarty. Reverse article is on furniture care.

The poet laureate Rights from his Green vertigo hills By John Stephen McGroarty

Some friend mailed a newspaper clipping about a recent bill in Congress setting forth that the Indian Pueblo’s of New Mexico are to be flooded by a proposed system of irrigation dams, that’s obliterating something both ancient and beautiful. It seems a pity that it must be done. Of course, nothing can stand any more in the way of modern progress. Maybe it is for the best but, if an exception can possibly be made, it should be in the case of these prehistoric evidences of the people who were wonderful in many ways, as the pueblo settlements evidence. The conservation of the monuments of past civilizations is important because it is from them that we learn of the past. And it is from the past that lessons are learned to guide the future. I have no means of identifying the author of the newspaper article referred to. Her name is Margaret Williamson. The newspaper carrying her statement has no marks of identification, either. The bill in Congress only is identified as “H. Are. 323. “But I do not need these identifications because I know that all that has been stated by the writer of the article is the truth.

Here are some excerpts from the Williamson article: “the Indian pueblos are the oldest inhabited villages in the United States, a priceless part of our national heritage. Such clean, white walls as are evidenced, for example, as Taos, they look to the tourist practically contemporary with his own time. Little does he suspect they have stood since first the Spaniards ventured north from Mexico proper end, in the 16th century, found the Indians living there in primitive skyscrapers. Actually in such dwellings the Indians have lived since prehistoric times. There they have earned their livelihood. There made all their beautiful jewelry of silver and turquoise, their intricately woven baskets, their masterly pottery with symbolic designs. Behind these blank walls, broken by little ladders leading to platforms and tier dwellings, has accumulated a heritage which Americans cannot do without.

Writers, archaeologists, architects, artists understand. They have hurried to see and make use in their art of the beauty they have found end, often indeed, they have been so entranced with this region of the southwest that it has held them through all their years. Tourists, too, though they could not remain, have come back again and again. Part Mexico, part Spain, part America – the country roundabout Santa Fe is yet holy Indian. It’s color, it’s pattern, it’s tradition, it’s history and custom and art, are unique. America needs them. The pueblo lands must be saved for the Indians, who have given their young men liberally to the cause of freedom. It should not be necessary for the Indian governor of Santo Domingo pueblo to say, as he is reported to have done: “if they flood our village, they must drown us with it. “ The first knowledge the civilized world had of these marvelous communities came from the expedition of Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan Friar who set out from old Mexico in the 16th century in search of a mythical “Golden Cities of Cibola. “Cortez the Conqueror and those who were with him believed in the existence of these cities from tales brought to them by wanderers. Upon setting out from Mexico fray Marcos traveled the distance of 100 leagues and struck a desert which required four days to cross. He then met a number of natives who have never seen a white man and who believed the fryer to have come from another world. They offered him all kinds of provisions and presents and there wasn’t anything they were not willing to do for him. He had but to say the word. In answer to his inquiries they told him that there was a valley four days’ journey to the east the inhabitants of which wore ornaments of gold on their arms and legs and in their ears and nostrils. Their pots and pans and kettles and things were also made of gold in the precious yellow metal was as common among them as adobe. It seems that all the members of the expedition perished in the adventure with the exception of fray Marcos himself. In the sunset of a fruitful day he reached the summit of a hill overlooking a valley and there before his entranced vision shone the Seven Cities in all their glory. He managed to reach Mexico again where he related what he believed he had seen. It was all the result of an inflamed imagination. What he really saw was the pueblos, the white walls of which were turned to gold by the setting sun. However, since frame Marcos was regarded as a man of strict veracity, the tail he told spurred the Spaniards to venture still northward. Then came the Spanish conquest of the Pueblo people. In recent times there has been published a book of which Willa Cather is the author and in which not only ancient life of the pueblos but the life that followed under Spanish domination is fascinatingly set forth. In this book and doubtless another’s the primitive religion of the people of the Pueblos is recorded authentically. All in all, it may be said without exaggeration that this region of the Southwest is as interesting as any other region on earth. Regarding the threatened obliteration of the pueblos, it seems as though it were no less regrettable then if Congress were to ordain the obliteration of the old Franciscan missions of California. One can easily imagine how the people of California would rise up en masse against such a proposal. Surely the people of New Mexico, white men, Indians and all, will protest to Congress against the enactment into law of the pending bill. We really think that if President Roosevelt were appealed to he would use his power and authority to defeat the proposed measure. I happen to know from experience how powerful the voice of the people in this blessed democracy of ours can be made to be. There is an old Latin saying that the voice of the people is the voice of God. “Vox populi, vox dei.“ We trust that many people who read these words will interest themselves in the matter. It might be well to write Governor John Dempsey of New Mexico, addressing him in the State Capitol at Santa Fe.