. Geronimo's story of his life . d withhonor, he is allowed to keep it, and may beasked, or may volunteer, to take a higherstation, but no warrior would presume totake a higher station unless he had assurancefrom the leaders of the tribe that his con-189 GERONIMO duct in the first position was worthy of com-mendation. From this point upward the only electionby the council in formal assembly is the elec-tion of the chief. Old men are not allowed to lead in battle,but their advice is always respected. Oldage means loss of physical power and isfatal to active leadership. Dances All dances are con
. Geronimo's story of his life . d withhonor, he is allowed to keep it, and may beasked, or may volunteer, to take a higherstation, but no warrior would presume totake a higher station unless he had assurancefrom the leaders of the tribe that his con-189 GERONIMO duct in the first position was worthy of com-mendation. From this point upward the only electionby the council in formal assembly is the elec-tion of the chief. Old men are not allowed to lead in battle,but their advice is always respected. Oldage means loss of physical power and isfatal to active leadership. Dances All dances are considered religious cere-monies and are presided over by a chief andmedicine men. They are of a social or mili-tary nature, but never without some sacredcharacteristic. A Dance of ThanksgivingEvery summer we would gather the fruitof the yucca, grind and pulverize it andmold it into cakes; then the tribe wouldbe assembled to feast, to sing, and to givepraises to Usen. Prayers of Thanksgivingwere said by all. When the dance began190. Chihuahua and Family UNWRITTEN LAWS the leaders bore these cakes and addedwords of praise occasionally to the usualtone sounds of the music. The War DanceAfter a council of the warriors had de-liberated, and had prepared for the warpath,the dance would be started. In this dancethere is the usual singing led by the warriorsand accompanied with the beating of the esadadene, but the dancing is more vio-lent, and yells and war whoops sometimesalmost drown the music. Only warriorsparticipated in this dance. Scalp DanceAfter a war party has returned, a modifi-cation of the war dance is held. The war-riors who have brought scalps from thebattles exhibit them to the tribe, and whenthe dance begins these scalps, elevated onpoles or spears, are carried around the campfires while the dance is in progress. Duringthis dance there is still some of the solem- 191 GERONIMO nity of the war dance. There are yells andwar whoops, frequently accompanied by dis-charge of fi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgeronim, bookyear1906
