A Pima Remembers by George Webb

Author:George Webb [Webb, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, General, Cultural; Ethnic & Regional, Indigenous
ISBN: 9780816533961
Google: 8LgCCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 2016-05-26T02:38:09+00:00

FLOOD

WHEN there were heavy rains on the upper part of the Gila, it would cause the river to raise with high water. Then, we would have an excuse to miss school. No one could cross the river. The muddy water would run for days, sometimes a week. It would sweep whole trees along with it and boulders would grind over each other. These were times when hundreds of frogs would come out of the mud and you would hear them all night long. You would think they were sheep bleating.

When this high water ran for any length of time, some of the Pimas at Santa Cruz would run out of groceries. There were no grocery stores in the villages at that time and all our supplies were bought in Phoenix. So the people would set a day and all gather at the river bank.

Some of the men would take their clothes off, then, with a hand full of long arrow-weeds they would wade into the water, placing the sticks along a course they thought would be a good place for a crossing, safe from quicksand.

After the sticks had been placed, the boys would get on their horses and ride back and forth over this marked course to pack the loose sand so the wagons would not go down in quicksand when they crossed.

When the sand was packed down, the team that was to make the trip to town was unhitched and driven across. Then the wagon, sometimes loaded with grain, was taken hold of by twenty-five or thirty men and they would pull it across the river. Sometimes the water would be waist deep and swift.

After the wagons were pulled across, the teams would be hitched on again and they would go on their way to town. Sometimes there would be a half-dozen wagons pulled across in this manner.

After they were on their way we would all go home. In two days we would go back to the crossing and wait for the wagons to return. When they came, they were pulled across the same way. Sometimes the water would be so swift that the boys on the upper side of the wagon would be knocked over and the water would carry them under the wagon to the other side before they could regain their footing. They would laugh and joke about it, but in the winter time it would be cold.

The older men who did not get in the water would have a bonfire on the bank of the river so the boys could warm themselves and dry their clothes. The ones who made the trip into town would always bring back a pie or cake for those who helped get the wagons across.

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