Scott Seibert, age 10, of Springfield, Oregon, for his question:

Who were the Aztecs?

Many people tend to think that all the Indians of America lived in teepees and spent their lives hunting the bison. This notion is very far from the truth. Columbus found the New ltrld, the Aztec Indians of Central America lived in fine cities. The Incas of Peru were outdoing the best farmers of the old world.

The Aztecs who remain now live in Mexico, many of them in shabby huts on shabby farms. But 400 years ago, their ancestors lived in splendid~cities. They built lofty, pyramid shgp.ed buildings topped with temples. Their princes and noblemen had fine palaces and their streets were glorified with huge stone statues of their gods. They wore fine clothes of dyed and embroidered cotton, feathery trimmings and jewelry of gold and silver. They were ruled by an orderly government and the strict laws of their priests. They had a well trained army of fierce warriors.

The large Aztec Empire was run from their chief city, Tenochtitlan. Its name is easier to say when we spell it Tay_NO_CH_tee,TLAN. The empire ruled most of southern and central Mexico. i3xports think that the city w.%s started almost '1,000 years ago. It was built on an island in Lake Texcoco. As it grew, it spread through the lake and its streets became shallow canals. There were causeways to the mainland and aqueducts to pipe in water from .mainland springs.

The children danced, played games and want to school. Gifted students were trained by the priests. r"zvarage students were taught crafts and useful skills. But life for the Aztecs was harsh because ref the fierce lairs of their priests. These powerful men taught that their gods demanded human sacrifice. Idithout human blood, these imaginary gods would deny them rain, destroy the crops and flowers and send other disasters. Most of all, the priests demanded warfare, the conquest of more land and more plunder from conquered people.

This was the mighty Aztec empire when Columbus discovered the New World. One of the explorers who came later was Hernando Cortez. With 1,000 armored, well trained conquistadores, he set out to convert the heathen Aztecs to Christia3ity, And he was victorious. In the capital city, most of the 100,000 residents were killed and the canals ran red with their blood. The tall temples and fine buildings were destroyed to make way for a Spanish barracks. Later, Mexico City was rebuilt in its place. And  later the historians, archeologists and other scholars tried to gather up the battered story of the Aztecs. We have learned a lot, but most of the  Aztecs’ story is lost and dcstroyed.

There were other proud peoples in Central and South .lmeriea. The Incas were gifted farmers who governed a land thousands of miles long. The Mayas had an empire in Mexico before the Aztecs arrived and conquered them. The history of these and other epics goes back soma 3,000 years. And like all past human history, it was a greedy story of conquest and plunder. The strongest group won and forced their rule upon the pcople. The deeds of Cortcz, sad to say, were not so very much different from those of the Aztecs the,vanquished.