|
Package of Coffee, How He got His Nameby Michael Harrison |
|---|
Just yesterday, I received from my old friend Harry C. James, a copy of his new book for children titled Ovada: An Indian Boy of Grand Canyon , illustrated in his usual beautiful style by another friend of many years, Don Perceval. In his letter sending the book to me, Harry mentioned the name Package of Coffee which served to bring back to mind, the Havasupai Indians I knew 50 years ago, for Package of Coffee is the name of an Indian I knew back in those days.
I guess the population of this tribe has remained fairly constant over the years-about 200, living in a most beautiful arm of the Grand Canyon itself, and until comparatively recent years known only to those hardy souls who made the trip down from Hilltop in the Great Thumb Country. In any event, some of the names borne by the Havasupai-or Supais as they were called locally-were Checkapanyega, Spoonhead, Buro, Paya, Crook, Sinvella, Watahomogie, Manakaja, Big Jim, Crook Jim, and there was even a Mark Hanna. However, there was one Supai who received his Sears Roebuck and "Monkey" Ward catalogues in the name of Package of Coffee. Here is the story as it was told to me.
Many years ago, a surveying crew was doing a job of work either on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon or down at Havasupai-I have forgotten which-and a crew had been hired to brush out ahead of the transit. One of the crew bore the name Pah-ka-chah-kah-ba. When it came that time of the month when the timekeeper on the job had to send the proper time slips so the crew could be paid, he just couldn’t cope with Pah-ka-cha-kah-ba, so he put down Package of Coffee and from that day to the day he died, he was known-to the whites at least- by that name.
Used by permission of the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society.
|
|
|---|
|
|---|