Cave Valley Indian Princess

(as told by Keith Bowman)

Many years ago the boys in Colonia Pacheco would hurt their cows down by the river. As time passed, they would go farther and farther and thus got down as far as Cave Valley.  The boys would play around the caves well there cows were grazing. It was interesting for the boys to find different caves going to them.

One day they found a cave that was back in a little canyon that they hadn’t been to before it was hidden by some trees. As they went into it, they sought it was very well preserved and had Indian dwellings in it. In the back there was one room that didn’t have any doors or windows. They pounded on it and knew it was a hollow room.  They got a stick and dug a little hole then put the smallest boy through the hole to see what was inside. When he got in and sat down, the light came in through the hole and he could see a girl sitting there. He said he had a hard time getting in that room through the small hole, but didn’t have a hard time getting out!

About a month later, an archaeologist from the United States was visiting the Pacheco area. He was told about this boy seeing the girl in the case. The archaeologist went to the boy and said he would give him a dollar if he’d take him where the girl was. He was taken there and they opened up a door into the cave and sure enough, there was a girl sitting there. She had on a blue velvet dress, had long blonde hair and blue eyes. There were two hollas (clay jars) by her, one contained squash seeds and the other one was empty.  It had probably contained water.

We don’t know why they put her in there or if they were putting her the there to preserve her during some more or attack or whether she was a prisoner. They intended to come back and get her, I’m sure, because they left her with food and water. She was very well preserved but her fingers were all worn off where she had tried to scratch and dig herself out. Of course, the archaeologist took the girl to United States and probably put it in a museum or other location for display.

When I tell this story to the girls who had “Girl’s Camp” in that area each year, they’d say, “Let’s go and find the cave.”  We’d go and find a cave where there were dwellings in little room in the back it had an opening so we figured this was a place where they found the princess mummy.