In the Fred Harvey
collection in the Hopi House, El Tovar, and Albuquerque, the United States
National Museum and the Museum of Princeton University, fine collections of
their work are to be seen.
These collections generally consist of cape and
body blankets made of the wool of the white mountain-goat. The colors are
white, black, blue and yellow. The black is a rich sepia, obtained from the
devil-fish; the blue and yellow colors coming from two barks grown in the
Alexandrian archipelago. The white is the native color and the fringe of
both cape and blanket is undyed. To strengthen and give solidity to the
garment, the fibrous bark of the yellow root is twisted into the warp.
CHAPTER XVIII. Pueblo And Navaho Pottery And Silverware
Primitive Processes. The primitive industries of a primitive people are
always interesting to the student. They are more; they often reveal more
than appears at first sight. We, with our present knowledge of improved
mechanical methods, stand and watch an Indian silversmith or potter, and we
laugh at the crudity of the methods employed, naturally comparing them with
our own. But this is not the proper way to look upon the work of the
aborigine. Rather let the gazer imagine himself without any of his advanced
knowledge. Let him project himself into past ages, and find himself groping
his way out of the darkness of primitive ignorance. He will find himself
seeking for many centuries, ere he invents and discovers even the rude
processes used today by the Indian.
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