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Report from the ATADA Law Committee on Feather Issues

by Roger Fry and Len Weakley

From the ATADA Newsletter, Fall, 2004, Vol. 14 No.4

As a number of members may know, we act as co-chairs of the ATADA Law Committee. We are wondering whether there are questions that our members may have regarding conservation and related laws that impact tribal art dealers and collectors, or that may be of general interest. If so these could form the basis for a column in the ATADA Newsletter. Questions could be submitted to us our contact information is at the end of this report. Answers could be general and constitute our personal views on the law or laws, rather than legal advice, which should not be given in a column such as this. The person presenting the question could be identified, or not, depending on his or her preference.

We had an opportunity to talk about some of these laws at the annual meeting in Santa Fe in August. Also, we have written a number of times about eagle and migratory bird feathers. We all have the message on that. Under no circumstances should eagle or migratory bird feathers be offered for purchase or sale, or for barter, or be imported or exported. Of course, this includes bird parts, such as talons and even nests and eggs. There is no exception for antique Indian objects containing these parts, even ones which were acquired years ago. A lesser known but related aspect of this involves feathered objects from the Amazonian Indian tribes of South America. Unless these objects were imported into this country before the Endangered Species Act of 1970, they are probably illegal as well. If anyone has any doubts about this just read Ron McCoy's article in the summer issue of American Indian Art, regarding the director of the Smithsonian who forfeited his entire collection of Amazonian feathered objects. The advice from the Law Committee is do not purchase or sell these Amazonian feathered objects unless you can be assured that they were imported legally. Deal with reputable dealers and collectors and obtain documentation verifying that the objects were imported per Act. Also, do not be misled by Internet offerings of feathered Amazonian pieces. This does not, in any respect, make them legal. In fact, many are likely illegal.

There are undoubtedly other legal issues that come to mind from time to time. Accordingly, we would like to encourage people to fax or e-mail questions to which we will attempt to respond directly or in future editions of this publication. Our e-mail addresses are lweakley@rendigs.com and wfry@rendigs.com. The fax here is (513)381-9206 and the phone number is (513) 381-9200. We are looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you at the next show.

Feathers and the Law

  Associate Ron McCoy's article for the ATADA Newsletter, Summer, 2003, Vol. 13 No.3 on a matter of interest to many ATADA members

Back in 1991, Roanne Goldfein, the editor of American Indian Art Magazine, approached me about an idea.   She and Mary Hamilton, the magazine's publisher, wondered whether I would be interested in writing a four-times-a-year column about legal issues associated with the buying, selling, and collecting of American Indian art from a non-lawyer's perspective.     (Since then, I've often wondered if what they really meant was, if Ron understands the legalities involved, anyone can.)   I agreed to the suggestion, assuming we would probably run out of material after four or five columns.    

That was a dozen years ago, and finding something to write about has never posed a problem.   In fact, what with such topics to draw from as loan agreements, authentications, guarantees, appraisals, consumer protection legislation, auction rules, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, there's been something of an embarrassment of riches.   This is certainly the case with feather law, the subject of the very first "Legal Briefs" column and one frequently revisited since.   The reason for this is not hard to discern, given the fact that so many objects of American Indian are (or at one time were) decorated with feathers.

The term "feather law" refers to the federal government's effort to protect certain species of birds.   This effort is buttressed by the provisions of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918), Bald Eagle Protection Acts (1940, 1962) (also known as the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act), Endangered Species Act (1973), and the regulations for enforcement set forth by the U. S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918), according to an informative fact sheet produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, makes it "unlawful to kill, capture, collect, possess, buy, sell, trade, ship, import or export any migratory bird, including feathers, parts, nests or eggs."   Birds not covered by the protective mantle include the house sparrow, starling, feral pigeon and such resident game birds as the pheasant, grouse, quail, and wild turkey.  

The Bald Eagle Protection Act (1940, 1962) extended protection to bald eagles in 1940 and to golden eagles in 1962 (at which point it becomes known as the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act).  

The Endangered Species Act (1973) offers protection to all species whose populations are in jeopardy.  

The stated goal of this body of law is the protection of endangered and threatened species of birds.   This directly affects those who buy, sell, and collect American Indian art because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes one way to protect the birds in question is through the elimination of "any commercial market for the birds themselves, as well as their feathers and parts".   (Conditions exist under which permission may be obtained for acquiring birds and their feathers, but these do not have any legitimate bearing on the American Indian art world.)   And it makes no difference -- repeat, no difference -- how old the object on which the feathers happen to be located might be and, hence, how old the feathers themselves might be (the determination of which is not an exact science).

Most questions involving Indian art and feather law concern eagle feathers.   Under some circumstances, you may legally possess them.   It is, for example, legal to possess bald eagle feathers legally acquired prior to June 8, 1940, when the Bald Eagle Protection Act took effect.   It is also legal to possess golden eagle feathers lawfully acquired before October 24, 1962, when the Bald Eagle Protection Act's provisions were extended to that bird.   In essence, then, bald eagle and golden eagle feathers may be "grandfathered" into a collection.   But, according to Fish and Wildlife Service regulations, these feathers may not be "imported, exported, purchased, sold, traded, bartered, or offered for purchase, sale, trade or barter".  

So, while there are provisions for the lawful possession of bald eagle feathers acquired before June 8, 1940, and golden eagle feathers acquired before October 24, 1962, you cannot possess any that you acquired through "purchase, sale, trade or barter" after those dates.

Good information about these laws can be found on one of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's websites maintained by the Wildlife Rehabilitation Directory through the University of Minnesota http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/laws.htm and saved at http://www.atada.org/eagleprotectact.html on 2/18/07.   The penalty information about fines and sentencing found at those sites, however, no longer applies.   All fines and sentences are now determined by Federal Sentencing Guidelines.   The Federal Sentencing Guidelines employ a nearly esoteric, definitely complicated, formula.   (Anyone who wants to immerse themselves in this swamp can begin by accessing the website of the Federal Sentencing Commission at   http://www.ussc.gov/guidelin.htm.)   That formula is based on such factors as the monetary value of the illegal commodity and the defendant's past criminal history.   The result is a range of sentencing options for the judge.   But as a general rule, for all three statutes -- the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and Endangered Species Act -- upon conviction one could be facing a year in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Over the years, I have experienced the American Indian art world as a student, gallery director, collector, and academic.   I am reasonably confident that I have heard just about every argument that can be made against federal feather law.   ("How can penalizing people for having old feathers protect birds living today?" or "How can the government render my _____ worthless by making it illegal for me to sell it?," etc.) If you want to argue the merits of feather law, there are two ways to do so:   lobby against it (not a promising avenue) or get yourself arrested and become the focal point for a test case (recommended only for masochists).

Anyone who buys, sells, or collects American Indian art needs to be keenly aware of the fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces feather law, is not joking around.

ATADA members are well aware of the result of a recent collaborative effort conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Norwegian law enforcement to round up dealer-violators of both NAGPRA and feather law.

According to federal authorities, this investigation led to Allard Auctions paying a fine for selling Kachina dolls decorated with migratory bird feathers, as well as the well-publicized arrests of some folks whose names are familiar in the American Indian art world: Tim Kornwolf, an Indian art dealer from Stillwater, Minnesota Joshua Baer, longtime participant in Santa Fe's Indian art market and Thomas Cavaliere, a Santa Fe-based dealer in Indian arts.

Each of these gentlemen were convicted of violating feather law, and while none of them was drawn-and-quartered by way of punishment, one can only imagine the penalties imposed by anxiety, downright awful publicity, the financial drain of hiring attorneys, and the resultant existence of federal conviction records.   The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision not to even bother hearing Tim Kornwolf's appeal pretty much puts the capper on things for now.   As a result, feather law is much more likely to remain as is, rather than undergo any major changes in the near future.

With all that said, here are three pieces of advice -- not legal advice, which I don't give, but some practical advice -- which readers may take or leave as they choose:

1.   Anyone who traffics in feathers -- not necessarily feathers as such, but also feathers as decorative components of objects -- needs to know exactly what type of feathers are involved.   If the feathers come from a protected species you are breaking federal law and would be well advised to keep away from them.   The "Oops, I didn't know they were prohibited feathers" excuse is a non-starter because legal authorities do not view ignorance as a particularly persuasive line of defense.

2.   I have often heard people who should know better suggest that if they get busted on a feather charge they can always say, "Your Honor, I asked the undercover agent if he/she was a undercover agent and he/she said, 'No.' So, since I've been entrapped I can't be held accountable."   Now, just think about that one for a moment.   Let's say a federal agent infiltrates a drug cartel and one of the heavies asks, "Are you an undercover agent or what?"   Does any reasonable person really believe the infiltrator is required to respond, "Well, now that you mention it, yeah, you're right, I'm a fed"?   This kind of reasoning sinks in the legal seas.

3.   Here's another defense that has not fared well of late:   "The undercover-agent-buyer and I agreed that if she/he bought $275,000 worth of merchandise I'd give her/him a gift -- your Honor, a gift -- of three eagle feather war bonnets.   Since they're gifts, and not part of the sale, I haven't violated the law."   The problem here is that the "gift" can be interpreted as an essential condition of the sale, and therefore a critical element in the entire transaction.

If you want to travel down the long, winding, tortuous road of the law, then pack your bags and get ready for the journey.   All in all, it might be wise to heed the motto "just say no."   Or, if you happen to be of a more literary mind, the Irish poet Thomas Moore's 1808 poem "Corruption" contained the following lines that seem pertinent when the subject of feather law comes up:

Ron McCoy teaches history at Emporia State University (Kansas) and writes the quarterly "Legal Briefs" column for American Indian Art Magazine.   He wishes to stress that he does not offer legal advice and anyone in need of such advice should consult an attorney.

On Collecting Antique Native American Art

By Marcy Burns

This is a slightly revised version of an article that appeared in the Wilton Show Section of The Arts and Antiques Weekly in March, 1999. It is the first of what we hope will be many articles intended to address in a positive way the misinformation that is being disseminated about the antique Native American and tribal art markets. We invite other people to contribute by submitting articles of their own to publications that reach out to a broader public. - Marcy Burns.

Expanding public exposure to the beauty of antique Native American art has resulted in an ever growing group of people inspired to become collectors. The novice collector, however, asks how to go about defining such a collection. While this is a typical question posed when beginning any type of collection, there are several unique considerations that need to be addressed when collecting antique Native American art.

There are some common cultural misconceptions that need to be clarified before one can address specific collecting issues. Many people think that antique Native American art is a narrow specialty. In fact it is quite broad. There are hundreds of tribes, each with its own unique history and culture. There was never one single American Indian way of life or culture.

Moreover, traditional Native cultures did not have the concept of art as we understand it. Objects that we label as art were created by Native Americans as objects of beauty to be appreciated in their daily use. Only after commercialization occurred were objects made to be sold or traded without regard to function. Distinctions made between objects made for daily use and for ceremonial use can also be fuzzy. For example, is a hat made to wear while hunting ceremonial because its wearer prayed before starting out on the hunt?

A collector can choose to collect within a category of manufacture (basketry, for instance), a tribe (Penobscot objects), a period (Historic Pueblo pottery), a specific historic event (objects related to the introduction of the horse to the Plains Indians), a type of object (musical instruments) or a design motif (objects with human figures). Geography can be a defining boundary, as can a type of workmanship (objects that are twined). Within the chosen focus, there are still further choices.

Another common misconception is that Native American cultures were destroyed as a result of contact and conquest by European-Americans ("Anglos" ). Survival of Native American identity and pride have proven these beliefs to be erroneous, although the various Native cultures certainly were dramatically impacted. Collectors from early contact and since have ensured the preservation of the details of Native material culture.

Tribes in the Eastern part of the United States came into cataclysmic contact with Europeans in the 18th century, a much earlier date than Western tribes experienced. Adventurers and expeditions often legitimately acquired objects representing Native daily life, such as clothing, weapons and hunting equipment. This impulse to collect was fueled by the desire to give people back home a taste of the sophistication, diversity and beauty of Native American material culture.

Major collections from those earliest contact days are primarily located in Europe (in England, Finland, Russia, Germany, Austria and Italy) but are rarely found in American museums. The earliest American collections were, in fact, formed by explorers such as Lewis and Clark, and by early New England seafarers who traveled to the Northwest Coast. (The Peabody Museums in Cambridge and Salem, Massachusetts, are prime locations of these early collections.)

As the various tribes in the East accommodated themselves to the dominant Anglo culture, they began to make objects they could sell or trade, many of which contained both traditional and borrowed motifs. This helped to provide a means of livelihood for the Indians in what for them was also a New World. Curios made by the Iroquois around Niagara Falls in the late 19th century are obvious examples.

Western tribes came into overwhelming contact in the 19th century. First Spanish and then Anglo conquest forced the removal of Western tribes to missions and reservations. The process was finalized with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad by 1880 and the final "resettlement" of the Plains Indians to reservations.

Objects from the 1860-1880 period are far more rare than objects from the later Reservation era. These earlier objects were used by their owners until worn out. The objects produced for the later commercial market were often collected new and preserved thanks to the Victorian era conviction that the Native Americans were a "Vanishing Race" and that aspects of their culture needed to be preserved for prosperity.

Shops, including the well known Fred Harvey stores, opened along the railroad lines. Native people brought their wares to the railroads to sell directly to the tourists. Traders marketed old and new objects through catalogs to buyers in the East. In fact, traders often initiated designs and marketed specific types of wares that they thought would sell, thereby directly influencing the designs and types of objects that Native people produced.

Because many people in today's society recognize the terrible injustice of what happened to Native cultures upon conquest, they also presume that most objects were seized from their makers without compensation. While there certainly were some objects taken from battlefields, etc., the majority of antique items offered for sale today were acquired by trade originating with their Native owners.

There is clear documentation that some objects brought high prices even at the time of their original sale. These include certain baskets made by well known weavers, fine early Navajo blankets made for wear and pottery made for sale by famous potters. Moreover, older is not necessarily more valuable. It all depends what the object is and how the market responds to that particular type of object.

What to collect? Collecting antique Native American art can be a major undertaking. Working with an established, reputable dealer will generally aid you when making critical decisions. Be sure to work with a dealer who will fully represent and warrant in writing all objects he or she sells.

As in all fields of collecting, aesthetics should be your starting point start with what you like. A collection will eventually define itself if you purchase objects to which you respond. Reach for the highest quality that is within your budget. Value always rests with quality in workmanship, condition and aesthetics.

You can further define what you are collecting by considering the following criteria. These can impact the value and marketability of any object. Be careful to be informed, for what you may presuppose determines value may in fact actually be treated differently by the marketplace.

  1. The period in which the object was made.

  2. The area and/or tribe from which the object comes.

  3. The type of workmanship used to create the object. (The commercial market prefers certain types of manufacture.)

  4. The materials out of which the object is made.

  5. The historical importance of the object.

  6. The documentation that accompanies the object, including the name and history of the maker. 

  7. Accurate provenance is rarely found for antique Native American objects since this was not something early collectors considered important. When there is documentation, it does not automatically impact market value, although it sometimes does. 

  8. The rarity of the object. The ethnographic importance of the object versus its artistic value. 

  9. The design motifs on the object (for example, objects with human figures American flag motifs often bring higher prices than earlier examples that contain traditional geometric motifs). 

  10. The age of the object. Age may or may not determine value. For example, baskets woven by Washo weaver Dat-so-la-lee under the patronage of a trader in the early 20th century are among the most expensive baskets ever sold. 

  11. Legal criteria. Certain antique objects made by Native Americans include materials that are deemed illegal to sell in today's marketplace by federal and state laws. Examples include objects that violate various endangered species laws, title questions on certain ceremonial objects and objects excavated illegally. Working with a reputable and knowledgeable dealer can help protect you.

There is a long history of collectors valuing and preserving Native American art. As you take your first steps in acquiring these objects, you open yourself to an opportunity to learn about many different types of people and ways of living. It can provide you with many years of stimulation and intellectual growth. Enjoy your journey!

Marcy Burns has been a collector of antique American Indian art for over 28 years, and has been a dealer for 15 years. She is a member and former president of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association (www.atada.org) whose members fully warrant in writing all objects that they sell.

Enhancing a Collection's Value

by Charles H. Lange

copyright 1997 by ATADA

One of the most serious points of contention between the professional archaeologist/ethnologist and the amateur (variously referred to as a pot hunter or vandal) is the fundamental desirability of complete and accurate record keeping. While publishing is usually the ultimate goal of the professional, this aim is often of little concern, at least immediately, to the amateur.

Future plans, or goals are often nebulous - for both the professional and the amateur. Ultimately, in either instance, items in a collection inevitably take on definite values. Sooner or later, a collection is significantly enhanced by a backup set of records, both written and photographic. Any item in a collection is given far greater value, either in a professional context or in a monetary sense, by the presence of documentation as to the initial finder or collector, the date of finding or acquisition, the original location of the find, the maker if known, the tribe or culture of origin, and any other information regarding the item - whether such accompanying data seems relevant, or important, at the time of acquisition.

A case in point is a Winchester '73 rifle that I acquired as a present from my father in my sophomore or junior year in high school, about 1933 or 1934. We were told by the dealer in our home town in Wisconsin from whom he bought it that the rifle originally belonged to a Sioux bodyguard for Sitting Bull when the latter was first taken prisoner by the Indian police. At the time, in the early 1030's, my father and I saw no reason not to believe this account as we happily added the weapon to our collection.

Recently, about a year and a half ago, a highly regarded gun dealer in New Mexico expressed an interest in this rifle. The individual's appraisal of the Winchester '73, 44-40, was:

"1st Model Rifle, 24" octagonal barrel, full magazine, 10 brass tacks in a cross shape on right side of stock. 11 brass tacks in shape of cross on left side of stock."

He added, "Without fuller history -- $2500" and "With Sitting Bull History -- $10,000 and up".

At the present time, sixty years later and 1,200 miles away in New Mexico, there is no way to obtain proper documentation for this Winchester. It may have been possible to get the papers at the time of acquisition, but we were not sufficiently sophisticated to ask for supporting evidence at the moment.

Now, the matter is closed except for the lingering wish that we had greater appreciation of the value of documentation.

With somewhat less precision, the same principle would apply to archaeological or other ethnographic specimens. Anthropology has long stressed the need for data in regard to both time and space considerations - what chronology can be applied as well as the geographical location, and within this, the specific stratum in which the item was found. To such considerations should be added context, or associated artifacts.

Time and space provide distribution and sequence data, leading to culture areas or ventures into the old-fashioned area concept. These interpretations lead to reconstruction of culture history - a basic concern of anthropology since its beginnings more than a century ago.

MAKING CONNECTIONS...

Ramona Morris presents an alternate point of view

Most of us would agree that the urge to create art and to recognize beauty in the creations of artists and artisans is universal to the human condition. For many of us, collecting and living with beautiful objects is a passion and necessity. In general, collecting "fashions" go in cycles, with one type of object, or region, or period receiving attention and then another. The competition for choice pieces can be fierce as prices rise and availability diminishes. No one wants to be left with the crumbs!

How many times have we heard that "collecting isn't as much fun as it used to be..." Prices are too high, desirable objects are too scarce, and the stress of competition often replaces the joy of discovery. How can someone build an interesting, cohesive collection under these conditions? What can we do to bring fun back into collecting?

One approach that can be very rewarding is to develop "connections" that transcend time and region. This approach can lead to new avenues of connoisseurship. It can open one's eyes to innumerable possibilities, all highly individual, depending only on one's chosen theme.

One intriguing approach would be to trace universal symbols those designs that keep turning up in cultures across vast distances and thousands of years. One can see how the spiral design could have been reinvented many times -- it is based on a form that recurs often in nature, the curve of a ram's horn, the curl of a fossil ammonite. Beautiful examples of this design occur in the embroidery on Hausa robes, and in the swirls on prehistoric Caddoan ceramics. Concentric circles could be the echo of tree rings, moon dogs, ripples in a pond or, more fascinating, the results of phosphenes on the human eye. What do they represent to the Australian aboriginal when they appear on the churinga stones, or an Eskimo when they are carved into a mask?

Utilizing natural forms can't explain where the swastika came from - a purely artificial construction found for at least 3,000 years in many reincarnations. And who thought of the eye or circle on the hand? This design is found from Tibet to Alabama, and is a totally cerebral concept.

Searching for examples of these designs from various sources could lead one to totally new fields of collecting and scholarship.

Another approach could be through relationships in form, finish or function.

Why do we find a particular type of finish on ceramics throughout the world at a particular stage in a culture's development? It is not like the shape of an adze where form follows function producing the most efficient design for its use. Ceramic finish is surface decoration in its purest sense. Does the human mind work within a set series of patterns, a worldwide concept of texture, a cerebral ideal of form?

Why is it that an extremely sophisticated shape, the stirrup spouted jug, is found in isolated areas of North, Central and South America over a period of at least 2,000 years with no intervening examples? Was its development a result of the movement of people and ideas from the coast of Ecuador to the mountains of Peru and to the Valley of Mexico, the American Southwest and the Mississippi Valley? A thousand-year gap appears, or a voyage of thousands of miles, but the later forms still mimic the earlier ones. This shape also turns up on the west coast of Africa among the Teke and Mangbetu of Zaire.

Another intriguing example of similar form is the star shaped stone mace head design reminiscent of the European "morning-star" that can be found in an area encircling the Pacific Ocean. Variations in the shape are echoed in copper and wood as well. These are undoubtedly a localized development rather than copies of European trade goods, as they occur much earlier than their European counterparts. Are there examples to be found on the route from the Pacific to Europe? Where are the earliest examples found, the most unusual materials used?

A collection using those criteria can be built without compromising the quality of the aesthetic. Every culture has multiple layers of refinement. Does the object show the touch of the maker's hand, the inner vision that is his/hers alone, or shared within a group, is there balance, refinement, whimsy or surprise? A collection using "connections" as a premise is only limited by the imagination of the collector.

The Sioux have a phrase for it..."Mitakuye Oyasin - We are all connected".

MEDIA FILE 2001...

Excerpts from recent magazine, newspaper and Internet articles of interest to the membership. All opinions are those of the writers of the stories and of the people quoted, not of ATADA. Members are encouraged to submit press clipping or e-mail links for publication in the next Newsletter.

"In Once-Lost Books, the Code Behind Indian Rock Art" reads the headline in Jim Robbins' June 19 story in The New York Times.

Datelined Portland, Ore., that story begins, "Throughout the Great Plains, images of men, horses and a nomadic way of life have been scratched into rock walls, a pictographic record whose precise meaning has long been a mystery to modern eyes.

"But researchers have recently unearthed documents that are helping them pry far more detail from the images found on rock faces from Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta to the cactus-studded plains of northern Mexico. They say most of the images are a form of picture writing, a cross-tribal code that was widely recognized.

"'Indians the length and breadth of the Plains were doing this stuff,' said Dr. James D. Keyser, a regional archaeologist for the United States Forest Service in Portland whose three decades of work have helped crack the code. 'Any American Plains Indian anywhere could have looked at these pictures and given you significant detail.'

"The documents that have emerged," the story continues, "are ledger books containing drawings by Plains Indians, some from the early 1800's, when the influx of white settlers and missionaries began pushing Indians from their territory. In addition to the ledger books, the new analysis has also been aided by finer dating techniques and new ethnographic literature. The new understanding comes as rock art faces increasing threats from vandals and weathering.

"Representational rock art is classified as ceremonial, in which the art was a depiction of a spiritual or shamanic event, and biographic, which is a narrative, usually about one person. Between 1600 and 1750, the biographic style of rock art began to develop, though the figures were generally crude, little more than stick figures. Although sexual encounters were sometimes depicted, the majority of images recorded battle exploits. Horses and guns were added to the art in the 18th century. 'Today you wave your stock portfolio," Dr. Keyser said. "In those days you bragged about your warrior accomplishments. There was no higher honor."

"The artwork took a qualitative leap in the early 1800's. European artists like Karl Bodmer and George Catlin, who had come to the frontier to paint Indians and their way of life, influenced the tribal art in turn. The native forms evolved quickly from stick figures to become far more realistic, with fully executed, yet stylized, horses and people, most scratched in the West's abundant soft sandstone with an antler or bone or, less frequently, painted on cliffs, primarily in a soft ocher color. While the style evolved over three centuries, the symbols and the meaning of the work remained consistent, even during the trauma of the contact period. That 'language' is the focus of the lexicon.

"Details in the artwork had a larger, very specific meaning that served to broadcast tales of bravery not only within one's tribe, but to whoever chanced to pass these prehistoric billboards, usually written on prominent landmarks or at spiritually significant locations. The biographic imagery includes both pictograms - symbols like a stick-figure man - and ideograms, pictures that represent a concept. A floating hand, for example, means that whatever it was drawn near was seized by the artist.

"Other conventions include a right- to-left organization, with figures facing left. While the figures are fairly realistic, their organization is not, with action over a period of time all in a single image. In other words, a single image of a warrior off his horse standing over a falling opponent, and behind him a muzzle blast in the air and a dotted line across the ground, covers several things. The horse shows that he rode up, the dotted line shows that he dismounted to fight on foot, considered a very brave act, then fired a muzzle blast and proceeded to encounter his enemy in hand-to-hand combat. 'It's as if you put the action of a four-panel Peanuts cartoon in one panel,' Dr. Keyser said.

"The most represented items are people, horses and sometimes other animals, guns, teepees and horse tack. Later, soldiers, wagons and forts entered the pictures. In 1924 a pictograph of an automobile was carved at Writing-on-Stone by Bird Rattle, a Blackfoot chief.

"Specific acts of bravery were crucial because they were required for warriors to become chiefs. The artwork, in a sense, is a way of keeping score.

"As the free-roaming culture of the Plains Indian came to an end, they stopped carving pictures in the rock and instead painted pictures on buffalo robes and teepees, and in ledger books in the same pictograph language. Ledger books are large bound volumes of white paper, often with blue ruled lines that were used to keep accounts. The books, along with colored pencils and pen and ink, were given to captive Indians so they could spend part of their confinement telling stories in pictography, sometimes for art's sake and sometimes for small amounts of money. 'They drew what they knew: the good old days,' Dr. Keyser said.

"Some whites, fascinated by the language in the ledger books, annotated the drawings with explanations of what the artists were talking about in their preliterate rock art. These explanations of the Indian symbology, along with ethnography, are the heart of the new lexicon.

"Dr. Keyser and a dozen or so other researchers have uncovered lost or forgotten ledger books, one at a time. Each time, the annotated ledgers provided a few more interpretations of the rock art symbology. Dr. Keyser, who has compared rock art, early decorated buffalo robes and the ledger art, said the symbols remained remarkably consistent from the early rock art through the reservation period.

"One of the most informative contributions to the lexicon was by Five Crows, a chief of the Flathead Indians in northwest Montana, who went by the Anglicized name of Ambrose. After Christian missionaries arrived, the warrior chief sat down in 1842 and drew a series of battle pictographs with ink and paper. He explained what each meant to Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, and De Smet translated.

"The date of the ledger was crucial because it was done while the nomadic and warrior way of life was still taking place, not as a recollection. (The only ledger earlier is an 1834 one done by Four Bears, a Mandan chief.) Dr. Keyser pored over the ledger, comparing the symbols interpreted by De Smet with the hundreds of images he had traced and photographed on rock walls in his own three decades of research.

"One simple Ambrose line drawing interpreted by De Smet, for example, was a battle between Flathead Indians and five Blackfeet. It portrays an enemy Blackfoot warrior lying in a circle and Ambrose carrying a bag surrounded by tiny lightning bolts. The two are, in turn, surrounded by symbolic rifles. De Smet's interpretation shows that a warrior lying in a circle meant that he fought from a pit. The bag, with lightning, carried by Ambrose is described by De Smet as a medicine bundle, which conferred supernatural power.

"This drawing added a couple of symbols to the lexicon - the charged medicine bag and the circle indicating a foxhole were symbols familiar to Indians at the time. There are about 100 symbols in the lexicon and perhaps 50 to 100 more to decipher. The translation of the ledger and the basics of the approach are explained in Dr. Keyser's book, 'The Five Crows Ledger: Biographic Warrior Art of the Flathead Indians,' published last year by the University of Utah Press.

"Another symbol is the decorated horse halter, portrayed in rock art as comblike. All halters were assumed to represent scalps hung from the bridle. But variations can show different things. One type, hanging on the horse's jaw, was indeed a scalp, while another, drawn below the jaw, was a chain-mail bit from the Spanish Southwest. A third, suspended in front of a horse, referred to the Blackfeet's Horse Medicine Cult, whose members tied a bundle to the horse's halter to give the animal strength and speed and make it impervious to bullets.

"The evolving lexicon has had practical impact, most notably in the case of a scalp found in a storeroom at the Smithsonian Institution. It was rumored to belong to a young Nez Percé man, but without confirmation it could not be repatriated.

"A ledger drawing done by a Crow Indian named Medicine Crow - who was known to be at the battle - showed the Crow getting close enough to strike his opponent. The victim's hairstyle was Nez Percé, and details fit accounts of the battle. It was enough to repatriate the scalp to the man's ancestors in 1998, and it was buried.

"Speaking of Dr. Keyser's work, George Horse Capture, a member of the Gros Ventre tribe and a special assistant for cultural resources at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, said: 'It's a great study. He's going in the direction of specificity, far more than any of his predecessors were able to do.'

"Ledger books are scarce, though Dr. Keyser hopes that more will turn up. Current information has come from a couple dozen ledgers. They are also prized by art collectors and can fetch $50,000 to $100,000 each. Many ledger books have been cut up and the pictures sold, so the books' archaeological value has been lost.

"The rock art, too, is at risk. Much of it has naturally weathered, and some of it has fallen victim to humans. 'When a museum has jackhammered them out of a wall or someone has shot them up with a gun,' Mr. Horse Capture said, 'it makes you feel like crying.'"

In her June 22 Antiques column in The New York Times, Wendy Moonan's story was headlined, "African Art for Sale, in Abundance"

"You have to know how to get rid of ideas that turn out to be wrong," said Hubert Goldet (1945-2000), a Parisian who collected contemporary paintings as a young man, then switched to African tribal art for the rest of his life,"the story began.

"A dedicated aesthete," Moonan continues, "he was 26 when he bought his first piece of African sculpture. By the time he died he had accumulated 640 African objects - masks, jewelry, reliquaries, statues, beadwork and textiles - in his Paris apartment. In 1979 he told a reporter at Arts d'Afrique Noire, 'Today, if I were to no longer collect tribal art, I think that I would not collect anything.'

"Mr. Goldet's collection of African tribal art, considered one of the most important in the world, will be auctioned on June 30 and July 1 in Paris. Because it is too large to be displayed properly in the salesrooms of Drouot, the auctioneer François de Ricqlès has organized the sale at the Maison de la Chimie, 28 Rue St. Dominique, in the seventh arrondisement near Les Invalides... The 400-page catalog, in French and English, costs about $60. It can be viewed at www.dericqles.com (information: 011 331 4874 3893).

"'He bought things up until three months before he died,' said Alain de Monbrison, a Parisian friend and the owner of Galerie Alain de Monbrison. 'He sold fewer than 10 objects over the 30 years he collected.' In 1999 he donated three pieces to the Louvre.

"Mr. de Ricqlès expects the auction to total at least $5.3 million, and the figure could go higher. Many of Mr. Goldet's works came from well-known early French and Swiss collectors, including Maurice Nicaud, Henri Kamer, Charles Ratton, Robert Duperrier and Pierre Vérité. Several of the pieces have been exhibited in museums. 'This is the most important public sale of African art since the New York auction of the Helena Rubenstein collection in 1966,' Mr. de Ricqlès said.

"Mr. de Monbrison, who served as an expert for the Goldet sale, said, 'It is a unique collection in terms of its quality, quantity and diversity.'

"It was perhaps inevitable that Hubert Goldet would collect something. He came from a family whose fortune was made in banking and oil, and he grew up with Impressionist paintings. He wanted to be involved in the art world from an early age. After spending time in the sales department of one of his family's businesses, he quit to study at the École du Louvre. In 1968 he joined Sotheby's in London, writing catalogs in the Impressionist and Modern Art department. In 1971 he returned to Paris to become the founding editor of Art Press, a contemporary art monthly. He accumulated paintings by Dubuffet, Tapiès, Alexander Calder and contemporary American artists. He left the magazine in 1974 to devote himself fully to African art. He took his new passion very seriously, spending hours at the Musée de l'Homme, studying books, visiting primitive art galleries and attending auctions. He amassed an important library on African art, which he later donated to the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, scheduled to open in 2004.

"'He was fascinated by this "total art" that conferred enormous beauty on ordinary household utensils and ritual and religious articles,' Mr. de Monbrison said. He bought very rare Dogon, Punu, Kota, Fang and Baule sculptures as well as everyday objects like arm and ankle bracelets, stools and headrests. In the 1970's African art was a stepchild in the art world. There was a prejudice against it because it is not made as art and it is rarely signed or dated. 'The notion of authenticity, when it concerns Western painting and works of art, is based on a knowledge of the identity of the artist and that the piece in question was executed during a certain given period,' wrote Lynne Thornton in an article about the Goldet collection in the February 1981 Connoisseur Magazine. 'Here, the sculpture is not only anonymous but its age is generally of little importance.'

"For Ms. Thornton, authenticity in black African sculpture means that the object was made with a ritualistic significance (not for tourists) and shows signs of wear. The masks and figures that Mr. Goldet bought all have patina. They were used in daily rituals, festivities, funerals and fertility rites.

"African sculpture is made by animists who confer a soul on inanimate objects, even tools and spoons. The materials employed include terra cotta, stone, iron, wood, bronze, gold and ivory. In his 1968 book 'African Art,' Pierre Meauzé, curator of the Museum of African and Oceanic Art in Paris, wrote about how Africans view raw materials: 'Since wood is a living material, it is felt that the masks and statuettes derive their magical power from the branch or trunk of a tree whose roots drew nourishment from the earth. Such a process is not so much sculpture as the transmutation of power through the modification of form.'

"Lot 205 in the sale, a female Baule Kpan mask from Ivory Coast, is a good example of how objects can be imbued with magic. Totally arresting, the 18-inch-tall carved wood mask has closed eyes, a long, sharp nose and a small oval mouth with teeth showing. Its high headdress is a mix of carved braids and chignons. The cheeks and forehead are scarified with beadlike decoration. Though slightly cracked, in its simplicity it is riveting. The catalog reports that such masks are used as part of a masquerage, a daylong performance in which an entire village marks the death of a notable or an important celebration. The piece is considered very rare, and the estimate is $200,000 to $266,666.

"African art was not particularly popular in the 1970's, so Mr. Goldet initially did not find it difficult to purchase pieces from galleries and other collectors. He was also lucky to be able to buy newly imported sculptures. In the 1970's, African art was coming into Europe with immigrants from the African colonies as they achieved nationhood. There were few rules on exporting African art. 'In most of the former French colonies, you now need a permit to export art,' Mr. de Monbrison said. 'But it's really too late. Most of the important objects left Africa long ago. In the countries where Islam has been embraced, the destruction has been huge.'

"Mr. Goldet shared his collection with few people. Photographs of his apartment show shuttered windows and an assortment of good 18th-century French antiques covered with statues, sculptures and objects. What could not be placed on furniture ended up on the floor.

"Those in Paris for the Goldet sale can also see Dogon masks at Galerie Jean-Jacques Dutko, in a show celebrating the publication of 'Masques du Pays Dogon,' published by Adam Biro. Sotheby's May 19 sale of African and Oceanic works in New York totaled $6.8 million. (Christie's did not have an African art sale this spring.) And the Brooklyn Museum of Art has reinstalled 250 works from its substantial African holdings, making it much easier to study the art. Mr. Goldet was, predictably, ahead of his time."

From our Arizona correspondent, two links to online information and a poll concerning Kennewick Man:

AOL Research & Learn: Archaeology/Anthropology AOL Research & Learn: Poll

Stephen Kinzer's July 3 story in The New York Times was headlined, "An Indian Craftsman Sees Glass Full of Possibilities, "and was datelined Taos, N.M. 

The story began: "Glassmaking is not an art normally associated with American Indians, but Tony Jojola wants to change that. Mr. Jojola, considered by many collectors to be among the most original glassmakers in the country, recently showed more than 100 of his works at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, N.M. Although the exhibition won him the kind of praise that would send many artists back to their studios to produce more, Mr. Jojola has instead chosen to embark on a mission to introduce his art form to Pueblo Indians. "Last year Mr. Jojola opened a workshop here, where he teaches young people to express themselves in glass. He accepts all applicants who appear serious, but his main goal is to show Indians a path that few have considered. 'I got thrown out of high school myself, so I know the problems these kids face,' said Mr. Jojola (pronounced ho-HO-la) while a handful of his students blew glass through pipes or watched over their kilns. 'Crafts were part of my family heritage, and I tried making pottery and jewelry. Nothing really grabbed me until I discovered glass. I knew right away that there was definitely something there. To me glass is a lot like clay, but it takes clay a step further. It's like clay you can't touch. When I started doing this 25 years ago, there were only three or four Native Americans who had even tried making glass objects,' he continued. 'Now there are 10 or 12 who are serious about it.'

"Mr. Jojola, 43, an Isleta Pueblo, described glassmaking as 'a way to take old traditions and apply them in a new and very beautiful way.' Much of the work he and his students produce reflects tribal heritage. Some of their glass bowls and vessels are made in shapes originally developed by Indian basketmakers. Others are decorated with ancient patterns or symbols. Some older Indians worry that glassmaking will never provide as reliable an income as making jewelry, ceramic pottery or other traditional Indian crafts, and they are reluctant to encourage their children to study it. Mr. Jojola and his supporters reject this notion. 'Many people have a tendency to believe that Indian art becomes inauthentic when it becomes creative,' said Lloyd Kiva New, a Cherokee who founded the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe nearly 40 years ago. 'I don't hold with that idea. I think Indians have the same right to invent and create as anyone else in the world.

"'There are inconsistencies to people who object to Indians working in glass,' Mr. New said. 'In the 17th century Indians started working heavily in beads that had been imported from Italy and Czechoslovakia. They developed a very fine craft art, which people now accept without question as Indian. The same can be said about silver, which has led to a wonderful output of Indian jewelry design, but which Indians in this country didn't use until the Mexicans introduced them to it in the 1850's. They grabbed it, took it and ran with it. That's just what Tony wants to do with glass.'

"For some who doubt whether glassmaking can rise to the level of fine art, Mr. Jojola's recent exhibition may have been a revelation. Several of his pieces are translucent and flecked or lined with colorful patterns that are free, bold and abstract. Others refer to traditional motifs that have been handed down over generations. Many works convey a combination of earthiness and spirituality. One piece, a white-tinted bowl with golden spots, carries patterns inspired by petroglyphs. Another, a red crocodile, bears a row of yellow diamond shapes down its back. Also on display were a thunderbird inlaid with lapis lazuli, a vase made with bits of coral, a three-foot-long water serpent with a long curved horn, and an oval spirit face with an expression crafted from chips of colored glass.

"Mr. Jojola is among a group of Americans who have raised glassmaking to a new level of quality in the last few decades. He studied with Dale Chihuly, whose work has been exhibited in more than 180 museums and who has made large-scale glass installations across the United States and in many other countries. Mr. Chihuly donated several pieces of equipment to the Taos workshop.

"Among Mr. Chihuly's teachers was Harvey Littleton, whose pioneering work at the University of Wisconsin led him to be considered the father of the studio glass movement in the United States. If this chain of training can be said to have passed from Mr. Littleton to Mr. Chihuly to Mr. Jojola, the next link may be represented by the young people at the Taos workshop. One of these students is Floyd Marcus, 26, a San Juan Pueblo. He represents Mr. Jojola's ideal because his central ambition is not simply to become an artist but also to return to his town and teach glassmaking to other Indians. If enough students who emerge from the workshop take that route, the notion of spreading glassmaking through Southwestern tribes may come to fruition.

"'I want to help get kids out of the cycle of drinking and that whole path,' Mr. Marcus said after laying down a large set of pincers with which he had just placed a bowl into a firing oven. 'Glass represents a great responsibility as a material. It's very demanding and unforgiving. If a young person learns the idea of limits and boundaries in glasswork, plus the teamwork and collaboration you need in making glass, I think that will carry over into the rest of life. This is something that can have a real social as well as artistic impact.'

"Mr. Marcus said he planned to spend the next five years learning not just the craft of glassmaking but also the mechanics of setting up a workshop where he can teach it. He said he hoped to spread it through Indian communities across this region. 'Glass could become a real form of expression for us, on the same level as baskets and pottery,' he said. 'If I can get 10 or 15 people in my pueblo to focus on this for a while, we'd do work just as good as Chihuly. I'm sure of it. Who knows, we might come up with a Picasso from the pueblo.' "

Smithsonian Official's Artifacts Investigated "read the headline of Elaine Sciolino's July 7 story in the New York Times.

"The United States Fish and Wildlife Service,"the Washington-datelined story began, "is investigating whether the private collection of Amazonian artifacts owned by Lawrence M. Small, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, contains feathers and other items taken from endangered species, a senior official at the service said today.

"The wildlife service, an agency of the Department of the Interior, has received enough information about the collection both from published photographs and anecdotal information from ornithologists that an investigation is warranted, the official said. An investigation was originally opened last November but halted last March after Mr. Small and his lawyer sent copies of import permits and written assurances that his contract with the seller of the collection required her to obtain the appropriate permits, the official said. 'Enough things have popped up for us to have to reopen the investigation,' the official said.

"He added that agents had examined and re-examined photographs of the collection, 'and every time you look at something you may see something you don't see the first time.' The wildlife service has asked to examine Mr. Small's collection, some of which is housed in a 2,500- square-foot private gallery in an apartment near his home in Washington, and he has agreed to the request.

"Mr. Small's personal lawyer, Daniel H. Squire, said, 'Not only is he willing, but he is anxious to have the collection inspected as soon as possible and I've so informed the Fish and Wildlife Service.' Mr. Squire, a partner at the firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, added that Mr. Small bought the collection of hundreds of artifacts, including arrows, capes, headdresses, masks and spears from a private dealer in 1998. That contradicts a story on the collection in last December's issue of Architectural Digest that said Mr. Small and his wife, Sandra, bought much of the collection on trips to remote villages in north-central Brazil in the 1980's, when Mr. Small was a senior executive with Citicorp. Other pieces were bought from collectors, the article said. Mr. Squire said he could not explain the contradiction.

"The collection was mounted by a husband-wife team of architects rather than curators for its aesthetic appeal rather than as a scholarly exhibition in the apartment, which Mr. Small sometimes uses for fund- raising dinners.

"The investigation, first reported today by the Hearst Newspapers, is not based on hard evidence that laws have been broken, the wildlife service official said. However, he added that there were several statutes that could have been violated, including the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Violation of either law could result in confiscation of the art or civil or criminal penalties...

"Mr. Squire said that he did not know for certain whether the collection contained any items taken from endangered species but that Mr. Small has no reason to believe that was the case. 'Why take my word for it, I'm not an ornithologist,' Mr. Squire said. 'All I can tell you is what Mr. Small told me - that he purchased the collection from a dealer who represented that she had the proper permits. She provided the permits to Mr. Small and Mr. Small has provided the permits to Fish and Wildlife and he has no reason to believe there is a problem.' "

"Maria Chabot, 87, Dies Began Indian Market," was the headline of Douglas Martin's New York Times obituary on July 15.

The story: "Maria Chabot, who in the 1930's began the popular Indian markets on the Plaza in Santa Fe, N.M., and later became a close associate of the painter Georgia O'Keeffe, died on Monday in an Albuquerque hospital. She was 87. Her goal was to be a writer, but her varied life included long periods as a rancher, as well as acting as general contractor for the house O'Keeffe built on a hilltop in Abiquiu, N.M., which in 1998 was designated a national monument. She took the well-known picture of O'Keeffe on the back of a motorcycle titled 'Women Who Rode Away.' "The Saturday markets for Indian crafts eventually became a daily event, and today they draw more than two million people a year, spending millions on pottery, jewelry and other items made by Indians. But when the markets began in the Depression, the Indians were lucky to get a few dollars for pieces that now reside in museums.

"The Indians lacked cars and pickup trucks to get to the market, so one of Ms. Chabot's first initiatives was to rent school buses, she said in an interview with The Santa Fe New Mexican in 1996. After the first Indian market, eight of the vendors told her they were using their earnings to install running water in their homes. Ms. Chabot began the markets in her capacity as executive secretary of the New Mexico Association of Indian Affairs, an advocacy group, with the goal of bringing broader awareness of the artfulness of Indian crafts. At first, the endeavor faced intense opposition from local businesses.

"Later, she helped Indians market their works more broadly by working for the Federal Indian Arts and Crafts Board, setting up cooperative marketing enterprises on reservations throughout the West. She noticed that many people felt good about paying higher prices for Indian arts. 'Maybe it's guilt for what we did to them,' she said in an interview with CNN in 1994.

"Ms. Chabot's paternal grandfather was the English ambassador to Mexico in the Mexican Revolution in 1910. His family, including Ms. Chabot's father, fled Mexico City, traveling by horse-drawn wagon. The family settled in San Antonio, where she was born in September 1913. After graduating from high school at 15, she took a job as a copywriter. She then visited Mexico City to study Spanish and archaeology, making friends there with some New Mexicans. She moved to Santa Fe in 1931 at 18, according to John S. Hart, a neighbor and friend. In her 20's, she made her way to the East Coast, took a freighter to Europe and spent two years traveling and working in France. She studied art and picked grapes in the vineyards of Provence. "After returning to Santa Fe, she took a job with the federal Works Progress Administration, the Depression-era project to find work for artists and writers. The agency provided her with a Model T Ford and a Brownie camera. Her assignment was to photograph and document Native American and Spanish Colonial arts and crafts. She met Mary Cabot Wheelwright, the well-known collector of Indian artifacts, when she photographed Ms. Wheelwright's extensive collection. Ms. Wheelwright's collection of Navajo art is now housed in the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe.

"For 20 years, Ms. Chabot managed Ms. Wheelwright's ranch at Alcalde, N.M. She hired the labor, supervised the cattle herd and oversaw the care of 1,500 fruit trees. She was president of the local irrigation association, an unheard-of post for a woman at the time, and adjudicated heated disputes over irrigation ditches. Ms. Wheelwright eventually deeded the ranch to Ms. Chabot, who sold it in the 1960's to move to Albuquerque to care for her elderly mother. "In 1936, Ms. Chabot was named head of the Indian advocacy group. Her idea for the weekly fairs stemmed from visits to Mexico, where she saw that the Indians seemed better off than those north of the border. "The difference was New Mexico's American Indians did not have a market for their goods and the Indians in Mexico did,"she said in an interview with The New Mexican in 1996.

"Part of her job was visiting pueblos, Indian villages, to encourage women, especially potters, to participate. One was Maria Martinez, the legendary potter of the San Ildefonso pueblo. After her work with the Indians, Ms. Chabot was introduced to Georgia O'Keeffe by Ms. Wheelwright, beginning a friendship that endured until O'Keeffe's death in 1986. She spent summers from 1941 through 1944 at O'Keeffe's house on the Ghost Ranch, 125 miles north of Albuquerque. Though her goal was to write, she spent most of her time managing activities at the ranch. She often accompanied O'Keeffe on the camping trips throughout northern New Mexico on which the artist created many of her paintings. Among them is one called 'Maria Goes to a Party.' In 1946, Ms. Chabot agreed to manage the rebuilding of an adobe hacienda on a hilltop in Abiquiu, 48 miles northwest of Santa Fe. She supervised the building crew and participated in design decisions for what became O'Keeffe's winter home. 'I had never found anything as romantic as this beat-up building, a ruin really,' Ms. Chabot said in an interview with The Albuquerque Journal in 1999 when the house was dedicated as a national landmark. 'It took six months just to get the pigs out of the house...'

"...She has no immediate survivors. A book of the hundreds of letters exchanged between her and O'Keeffe, with commentary, will be published posthumously, Mr. Hart [Ms. Chabot's neighbor] said. He said that Ms. Chabot was often astounded about the mistaken judgments of outsiders. One author said about how much the two women enjoyed riding horses. Ms. Chabot told her friend that she had never seen O'Keeffe on a horse. "In 1996, when she was named a 'Living Treasure' of Santa Fe, Ms. Chabot was asked about her wide experiences. 'You just live your life,' she said, 'you don't try to do anything.' "

"Live by the Pen, Die by the Sword" was the headline on John Noble Wilford's July 17 story on Pre-Columbian public relations in The New York Times.

"At the height of the Maya civilization," Wilford's story began, "the only literate society in pre-Columbian America, kings fervently, perhaps desperately, believed in the power of the pen. Whether they thought it mightier than the sword is doubtful, but a growing body of evidence from Maya writing and art shows that scribes played a central role in magnifying their king's reputation and solidifying his political hold on the realm.

"No royal court in the classic Maya period, especially from about A.D. 600 to 900, seems to have been without scribes of high rank. In paintings and sculptures, they are seen seated cross-legged and wearing a sarong and headcloth, with a bundle of pens and brushes at the ready. Some of the painted or carved figures are accompanied by inscriptions identifying the person as keeper of the royal library, the chief scribe. The court scribes archaeologists have concluded, came from the noble class, sometimes from the royal family itself - younger sons of rulers or sons by secondary wives and concubines, and even some daughters. Their duty was to prepare art and text for elaborate public displays glorifying the king's triumphs. They were, in modern parlance, propagandists and spinmeisters.

"When times were good, scribes lived well, sometimes too well. One painting of drunken revelry reveals that even then, writers on occasion had an unbounded thirst. When their king met defeat in battle, though, the scribes were among the first to suffer a cruel fate. And that, as much as anything, an archaeologist has now pointed out, affirms the paramount place of scribes and writing in Maya politics.

"In a close study of texts and three imposing pieces of art, Dr. Kevin J. Johnston, a Maya archaeologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, determined that those who lived by the pen for a defeated ruler could expect to die by the conqueror's sword. These scribes were captured, humiliated in a public ceremony, mutilated and finally executed. A favorite form of mutilation was breaking their fingers and tearing out their fingernails. Writing in the June issue of the journal Antiquity, Dr. Johnston concluded, 'Texts were a medium through which kings asserted and displayed power, and thus they and the scribes who produced them were targeted during warfare for destruction.' The fact that many of the captured scribes were kinsmen of the conquered king and suspected of continued loyalty might have contributed to their fate. But the methods of public torture suggest that the conquerors also intended to send an unambiguous message.

"'What captors chose to emphasize in public documents was not the physical elimination of the scribes through sacrifice but the destruction through finger mutilation of their capacity to produce for rivals politically persuasive texts,' Dr. Johnston wrote. 'Finger breaking was a significant political act because it produced and revealed the vulnerability of enemies and competitors.' Dr. Johnston said in an interview that these previously unrecognized practices underscored the importance of the written word and monumental art in reinforcing the power and authority of Maya kings. They were forms of what he called 'competitive display,' meant to intimidate people into a state of loyalty.

"Because most Maya city-states were small and inherently weak, Mayanists say, kings typically had to resort to such ceremonial strategies to help justify and maintain their power. In the late classic period, there were at least 40 city-states across the heart of the Maya domain, which included what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and part of Honduras. No single king apparently ever managed to control a wide section of the land. Dr. David Webster, a Mayanist at Penn State, said he agreed with much of Dr. Johnston's thesis, particularly the role of scribes in proclaiming royal authority through competitive displays.

"'A king who is not very confident brags a lot,' Dr. Webster said. ' "I am the king," he brags all over the lowlands. The next king is only 30 kilometers away and he's saying, "No, I am the king." There's a lot of status rivalry, and so they build lavish palaces and have a lot of feasting and other ceremonial displays.'

"A more risky alternative course for enhancing a king's reputation was warfare, which among the Maya often stemmed from 'status rivalry' between neighboring rulers, not necessarily from an appetite for more territory. After a war, a monument prepared by a loyal scribe- painter soon went up in the victor's city. The triumphant king is shown standing heroically on the backs of prostrate captives - the Maya version of a photo-op. Several other specialists in Mayan archaeology said they found Dr. Johnston's research convincing.

"'It's a new perspective based on what had been stray pieces of evidence that we haven't been putting together before,' said Dr. Stephen D. Houston of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Dr. David Freidel of Southern Methodist University in Dallas said the research provided important insights into 'a war of words' the Maya seemed to have waged through much of their classical period, before the civilization went into sharp decline around 900. In his judgment, Dr. Freidel said, the Maya were a history-minded people and their scribes were not just mechanical transcribers but were the historians, intent on defining their culture and imposing their own interpretation of history. The destruction of monuments and inscriptions was one city's way of erasing the history of an enemy. But he questioned the premise that the Maya civilization was more politically fragile than most others.

"Modern scholars think that the Maya glyphs are one of only three writing systems - the other two being Sumerian cuneiform in ancient Mesopotamia and Chinese - to be invented independently. All others were probably modeled after or influenced by existing scripts. Maya was the last of the three scripts to be deciphered, beginning in the 1950's it has given scholars a clearer picture of Maya history..."

George Terasaki is featured in Rita Reif's August 5 New York Times story, "A Family and Tribe From British Columbia Regain a Piece of History."

The story began: "On that Friday in May, Helen Rush Robinson, an elder of the Nuu-chah-nulth people, packed the black and red cape she had emblazoned with images of her family story - a moon, a canoe and a thunderbird - and joined relatives and other members of the tribe for the trip by car and ferry to Vancouver. It was the first step on their journey from Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, to New York to retrieve an artifact important to the Nuu-chah-nulth and even more dear to Mrs. Robinson: a painted curtain that her father, a chief of the Uchucklesaht band, had commissioned for her coming-of-age ceremony nearly 60 years ago.

"That night in a motel at the Vancouver airport, while the others slept, Mrs. Robinson stitched together headbands of cedar bark, rabbit's fur and abalone shell, working in the dim light from an open bathroom door. The headbands were for all to wear in New York when they conducted a ritual of return practiced by the Nuu-chah-nulth, an ancient Northwest Coast tribe. "While working on the headbands, Mrs. Robinson, who turns 70 today, thought about the curtain that she had not seen for decades, since her coming-of-age ceremony in the early 1940's. Her father had orchestrated the event, defying Canadian laws at the time that banned such rituals as well as the potlatch feast that followed. She recalled being anxious and shy during the celebration, and her memories of it were ambivalent. But she had not forgotten the huge painted curtain, a 12-by-14-foot depiction of crestlike images attributed to the artist Tomiish and rendered in a nontraditional style reminiscent of 1940's magazine illustration: an awesome thunderbird filling the sky, serpents flanking it breathing lightning, a whale roaring thunder and a man demonstrating his strength by lifting a hefty column.

"By the 1960's, when she became more curious about the tribal stories depicted on the curtain, it was gone, she said, probably stolen from a closet in the attic shortly after her father's death in 1963. She feared she would never see it again. 'For the Nuu-chah-nulth people, painted curtains are the most important art works,' said Alan L. Hoover, who was manager of the anthropology department at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria before retiring last month. Mr. Hoover helped organize 'Out of the Mists: Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs,' a two-year traveling exhibition of painted curtains - including a boldly graphic one from the estate of Andy Warhol - and other artifacts. The show, which ended last month in Los Angeles, presented the evolution of Nuu-chah- nulth art, from painted wooden screens in the 18th century to cotton and muslin curtains from the 1860's on, when artifacts related to tribal ceremonies became illegal and fabric paintings proved easier to conceal.

"It was that exhibition that brought about the discovery of Helen Rush Robinson's curtain. George Terasaki, a retired New York dealer of American Indian art, had lent three curtains to the exhibition and told Mr. Hoover about three others that he owned. Mr. Hoover passed the information along to the Nuu-chah-nulth tribal council, and one of the curtains was identified as Mrs. Robinson's. Mr. Terasaki said that when he bought the curtain 30 years ago from Norman Feder, a curator at the Denver Art Museum, it came without any historical documentation. Mrs. Robinson became excited when she learned in March that her curtain had been found in New York. 'That curtain is like a book of family history,' she said. 'It holds the proof of who I am. There are songs that go with the curtain that tell all the family stories.'

"Mrs. Robinson appeared in April with other members of the Uchucklesaht band at a meeting of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribal council, a body that represents 7,500 people in 14 nations, to ask for help in acquiring the curtain at the price Mr. Terasaki asked: $17,000, or 28,000 Canadian dollars. 'She stood up and told her story,' said Susan Lauder, one of Mrs. Robinson's nine surviving children. 'She told the council that white people and everybody had taken away much of the Indian culture, but if the curtain came back to her, it would mean she had it all.'

"Mrs. Robinson ended the band's plea to the council by saying, 'This is all I have left please don't take it away from me again.' She was in tears, as were many who heard her. Immediately, several young women rose to pledge support from different bands among the 14 nations. George Watts, the chairman, asked that each nation contribute $2,000 in Canadian currency to pay for the curtain, and all agreed.

"Five weeks later, Mrs. Robinson was at the Vancouver airport for her first airplane trip. That night she experienced another first: a ride in a stretch limousine, provided by Mr. Terasaki, from Newark International Airport to a Manhattan hotel, where the group of 13 stayed as his guests. Everyone rose early on Sunday morning. By 8, Mrs. Robinson was in her cape and her new headband, taking taxis with her family and the others to Mr. Terasaki's East Side apartment. They gathered outside his door so that the men could apply paint to their faces and don their robes and headbands, and they watched Ron Hamilton, a consultant who studied the curtain's history for the family, shake his rattle to spread bird down on the floor in the hallway. 'We spread down as a way to bless that place,' Mr. Hamilton said. Thomas Rush, a nephew of Mrs. Robinson's who will soon become a chief of the Uchucklesaht band, was to enter the apartment first. 'I peeked from the hallway at the curtain,' he said. 'I could barely contain myself. I wanted so badly to go in before the chant. They had to hold me back.'

"Mrs. Robinson followed him into the room. 'When I first saw the curtain again, I said hello to my father and mother,"she said. "I'm here now to take you home, you're coming home with me. "I said it in my own language. And I thanked the Lord for the day.' "

"Cowboys and Indians Vie, Politely, for a Museum" - the headline on James Sterngold's August 29 story in The New York Times. 

Written in Los Angeles, the story began: "It is hard to avoid and almost electrical surge of emotion when browsing in the storerooms of the Southwest Museum here, which has one of the country's leading collections of American Indian artifacts. The floors are concrete and the shelves cold steel, but everywhere there are signs of a vivid, hand-crafted world humming with an inner life, lost but for many of these objects. "Hanging above one passageway, for instance, rolled neatly in plastic, is one of the last remaining complete buffalo hide tepees from the Great Plains. It is just a few feet away from an exceptionally rare, mint condition birch bark canoe a century old. Tiny sacks of hide filled with secret ingredients dolls with unblinking, dark eyes and everyday objects enlivened with spiritual symbols are spread across the thousands of shelves and drawers. "But if awe is the first emotion one feels here, melancholy is the second, because most of these artifacts have not been out of storage for decades and probably will not be exhibited anytime soon unless this important if little known museum embraces some deep changes. That day may have arrived, but with a curious twist: the Southwest Museum may have to choose whether its future lies with the Indians or with the cowboys.

"After a scandal a number of years ago in which a former director illegally sold off some valuable pieces, and then more than a decade of exploratory talks and efforts to attract a larger audience, the Southwest Museum is considering an alliance with one of two wealthier California institutions, both of which would provide new, larger quarters and far greater access to its collection.

"One of the contenders is the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, a quirky, relatively young but well-endowed institution in central Los Angeles founded by the cowboy singer and actor Gene Autry and his wife, Jackie. The other is the Pechanga Band of the Luiseño Indians, a small tribe that operates a casino midway between here and San Diego. Both have held out the possibility of a new, expanded home for the Southwest Museum.

"But a partnership with either the Autry or the Pechanga Band raises new questions. Some Indian groups have criticized the Autry proposal as a none- too-subtle attempt by the cowboys to take over the Indians, culturally speaking, while some in the art world have expressed concern about whether a casino would really be an appropriate overseer for a major collection of Indian artifacts.

"The Southwest, founded in 1907 in the out-of-the- way Mount Washington neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, is the city's oldest museum and it is proud of its independence. But it has acknowledged that its minuscule endowment of less than $5 million and its modest exhibition space - it is able to show only about 1 percent of its 350,000 objects - have forced it to consider a partnership to bring its collection out of obscurity. 'What we have is a world-class collection,' said Duane H. King, the museum's well-regarded executive director. 'What we don't have is a world-class museum.' He added, 'The most important need we have is making the collection more accessible to the public.'

But having come to that crossroads, the museum faces choices that present perils. The Southwest, with an invaluable collection and the respectability that goes with it, is being pursued by two relatively young institutions that are trying to use their wealth to obtain a share of that credibility. The Southwest must, in short, find a partner without appearing to be selling out its autonomy or its status.

"'There are numerous objects in that collection - ceramics, baskets, things like that - that are the best you will find anywhere,' said W. Richard West, a Southern Cheyenne and the director of the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian Institution. 'I just hope it can finally get its due. We are all watching this with great interest and concern. It's important to the whole community.'

"The Southwest Museum's collection was put together in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely by its founder, Charles Fletcher Lummis. That was a time when an enormous range of objects were available that today cannot be found. Its collection is focused on artifacts from the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Plains and the Northwest coast.

"In contrast to the Southwest Museum, the Autry boasts an endowment of $100 million. Officials at the Autry, in Griffith Park adjacent to the zoo, have proposed creating an umbrella entity that would handle administration and fund-raising for both museums but then allow the two to occupy adjacent buildings and to operate autonomously. The only remotely similar arrangement exists in the National Museum of the American Indian. Several years ago it absorbed the George Gustav Heye Foundation, which, much like the Southwest, once occupied a little-visited, undersize museum in upper Manhattan. The Heye collection - consisting of some 800,00 Indian artifacts - has retained its name at its museum on Bowling Green in lower Manhattan, but the old foundation no longer exists.

"The casino operated by the Pechanga Band is near Temecula, an area rapidly filling up with housing subdivisions. The band is planning to expand its operation to include a hotel and a cultural center, where, it has suggested, it might include a new home for the Southwest Museum. 'This is still very, very preliminary,' said Butch Murphy, the communications director of the Pechanga Band. 'We didn't have a revenue stream before we had the casino, so we never made any plans like this. We look at this idea as a means of diversifying.'

Duane Champagne, director of the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California at Los Angeles and himself a member of the Ojibway tribe, said the Southwest could gain from either choice. 'Their dilemma has always been that they want more visitors, but their endowment is not huge, and not that many people go to that location,' Mr. Champagne said. 'In some ways the Autry has done a better job of reaching out to both the general community and the native community. Traditionally, the Southwest focused on collectors. It's not the cowboys taking over the Indians in my view.' But he added: 'Turning to a gaming tribe would be a breath of fresh air, too. They have lots of money, so to me it makes sense. You want that native input.'

Others are not so sure. 'An institution like the Southwest Museum, which has such enormous potential and could have such a large educational impact on the city, can never sacrifice its integrity,' said Richard Koshalek, the president of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and for 20 years before that the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art here. 'They should not be enticed by the world of entertainment, and they should not be enticed just by money. In my humble opinion, they need to explore other options.' He added, 'There is no room for error.'

"Mr. West of the Smithsonian said the Southwest's collection was so important that he had pursued discussions with the museum about joining forces. But with the National Museum of the American Indian caught up in the construction of a huge new building in Washington, it has not been able to continue talks with the Southwest, he said. 'We would have loved nothing better than to have had some closer relationship with the Southwest Museum, and we have had those discussions in the past,' Mr. West said. 'It's just that the timing was a little bit wrong. But we still are concerned that they find the best arrangement.'

"The discussions with the Autry have now moved the furthest. But there are some substantial hurdles. For one, the Autry has had to struggle to be taken seriously, in spite of huge efforts in recent years to increase its big endowment and pursue more scholarly exhibitions. 'We got pretty far and talked for a long time, but some of their board members resisted,' said John Gray, a former banker and now the executive director of the Autry, acknowledging that his museum had yet to establish itself as a serious contender among the leading Indian museums. 'They thought the Autry was superficial. So we're just working harder to explain who we are and what we are trying to do.'

"The Autry is in some ways like a strange old ghost town attic of Western collectibles. It has for instance the actor Vincent Price's collection of Western motif paintings. There is an Indian brand motorcycle. The museum also has a cash register from a frontier era shop, custom-made wagons from Gene Autry's Melody Ranch and a huge collection of ranch implements. But in recent years it has made some ambitious acquisitions, received some important donations and has worked hard on a diverse array of shows. The shows have ranged from those on Woody Guthrie and Northwest coast Indian masks to the role of Chinese immigrants and blacks in the development of the frontier. It even put together a show of Polish political posters and other public art that used images from the American West.

"The Autry has also tried to present a balanced view. For instance in an exhibition on George Armstrong Custer it offered visitors two separate paths, one showing how he was viewed by Indians and another on how he was viewed by white society. One major hurdle to a combination with the Autry is resistance to the construction of any new buildings on parkland. There was opposition when the Autry itself was built, and some neighborhood groups have already said they would fight any further loss of open space. Anticipating the problem, Mr. Gray said he had suggested that the new building go up in what is now a parking and delivery area behind the Autry.

"Whether that is the best location for showing off the items in the Southwest's now dark and quiet storehouses remains to be seen. 'All these things,' Mr. King said, standing before an open shelf of buffalo hide moccasins, 'tell stories that people ought to be able to hear.' "

"Museums Return Indian Treasures," reads the headline in The Wall Street Journal's August 31 View/Artifacts column written by Jason Edward Kaufman.

The story begins: "In 1899, Union Pacific Railroad chairman Edward H. Harriman led a remarkable survey expedition to the Alaska coast. Among the 126 passengers accompanying him on the luxury steamer were his family, most notably the eight-year-old future governor of New York and big league diplomat W. Averill Harriman, and two dozen of the country's greatest scientists, naturalists and artists, including nature writer John Burroughs, photographer Edward S. Curtis and conservationist John Muir, who had recently founded the Sierra Club.

"In the final days of the two-month, 9,000-mile journey, after 50 stops from Seattle to Siberia,"the story continues, "the ship anchored off a native village on Cape Fox, south of Ketchikan near Alaska's southern border with British Columbia. The Tlingit Indian settlement appeared abandoned, so Harriman's band went ashore and helped themselves to totem poles, an entire decorated house, ceremonial blankets and other items later distributed to some of the party members' affiliated museums.

"More than a century later, five prominent U.S. museums recently returned a large part of the plunder. The Smithsonian Institution, the Field Museum of Chicago, the Peabody Museum at Harvard, the Johnson Museum at Cornell and the Burke Museum at the University of Washington sent back four monumental carved-and-painted-cedar totem poles dating from the early to mid-19th century and five large architectural fragments from a clan chief's decorated house. It was one of the most significant restitutions to date under the controversial 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

"The repatriation festivities at Ketchikan became a highlight of 'Harriman Retraced,' a recent expedition following the 1899 route. Tom Litwin, director of the Clark Science Center at Smith College, brought together 30 scientists - half of them Alaskans - and some 70 Smith patrons and alumnae (who paid up to $6,900 for cabins) as well as filmmakers working on a two-hour documentary that will air on PBS next year. Their four-week voyage, which ended in Nome on August 19, sought to gauge the ecological and social changes since Harriman's day.

The return of the Harriman hoard is symptomatic of the guilt-ridden spirit of our time. But it didn't come easily. Irene Dundas, repatriation manager for Cape Fox Corporation, whose 290 shareholders include most of the descendants of the three clans that lived at the village, spent seven years locating the objects and filing claims. But evidence alone might not have persuaded the museums to relinquish their very valuable objects if it hadn't been for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

"NAGPRA requires federally funded institutions to inventory their Native American materials and offer to repatriate certain categories of objects to the appropriate tribes. The main target of the statutes was human remains - bones and hair and teeth from an estimated 200,000 individuals reside in U.S. museums and agencies. Tribes want them back because Native spiritual beliefs demand that these ancestors be laid to rest on tribal lands along with their associated funerary paraphernalia. The legislation applies also to items deemed crucial to community identity or ongoing religious practices of Indian groups."

The story continues: "Opponents justifiably contend that the law ignores the interests of Western science, vacates legitimate transactions by which museums obtained artworks, results in reburial or destruction of important pieces by Natives, and relies at times on tenuous, even specious, claims of tribal affiliation that purportedly span hundreds of generations. A federal district judge ion Portland, Ore., is about to rule on the fate of 'Kennewick Man,' a 9,200-year-old skeleton that has become the rope in a tug-of-war between scientists eager to study the ancient American and tribes as far away as Samoa that claim him as a distant relative. But as outrageous and politically correct as all this may appear, keep in mind that the NAGPRA cases often are the equivalent of folks asking museums to return their grandma's gravestone - or in some cases grandma herself.

"'People have the impression that trucks are going to pull up to museums and deplete the collections,' says James Pepper Henry, repatriation manager for the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, which is subject to a separate NAGPRA-like law. 'But in reality, less than 1/10 of 1% of the 800,000 objects in our collection will be subject to repatriation,' and not all of those were displayable in the first place.

"Call it affirmative action or simple restitution of property, but the process can help Natives connect with vanishing ways of life and rekindle their cultures. Cape Fox is a vivid case in point..."

The story concludes: "Ms. Dundas says the tribal treasures will become part of a new cultural center to open next spring. The area already boasts 'the largest totem park in the world,' but with half a million visitors descending each summer, one more attraction couldn't hurt. 'We're trying to find the rest of the things that were taken,' she says, citing boxes, drums, masks, helmets, blankets and marble-bear posts stripped from a grave. Most likely they're in private collections and not subject to federal repatriation claims. But Cape Fox Corporation recently purchased some 1,000 Tlingit antiquities from local collectors and Ms. Dundas hopes these smaller items will one day be put on view in a tribal museum."

"In Santa Fe, Indian Art Goes Up and Down With the Market," read the headline for Ken Shulman's September 2 story in The New York Times.

Shulman's story, with a Santa Fe dateline, begins: "At a time when the world's cultural borders are becoming increasingly fluid, artists are finding they no longer have to depend on a single market for reputations and livelihoods. Filmmakers can seek distribution at festivals in Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Contemporary artists can waltz through the global biennial circuit. But for American Indian art, there is only Indian Market. Organized by the Southwest Association of Indian Artists, a Santa Fe nonprofit arts organization, this year's Indian Market brought together 1,000 American Indian artists and an estimated 100,000 visitors last month for a weekend of networking, critiques and commerce. For size, quality and cachet, there is no other American Indian art fair that comes close to it.

"'I cannot say enough good things about Indian Market,' said Raymond Nordwall, 36, a Pawnee-Chippewa from Muskogee, Okla. Mr. Nordwall estimates that almost half his income over the last 10 years has come from sales made either during Indian Market or as a result of it, to clients he met there. Based in Santa Fe, Mr. Nordwall does colorful monotypes and oil paintings of traditional American Indian scenes. Last year, his print 'Reflection of Horsemen' was selected for the Indian Market poster. "'That definitely changed my career,' said Mr. Nordwall, who brings his works on paper to Indian Market and sells oil paintings out of the gallery he recently opened on Santa Fe's pricey Canyon Road. 'I'd always sold out at Indian Market, but this time people were fighting over my work.'

"Established in 1922, Indian Market was originally an arts-and-crafts adjunct to the Santa Fe Fiesta, a celebration of the Spanish reconquest of northern New Mexico in 1692. Paradoxically, Indians were not invited to attend the inaugural Indian Market - until the 1950's, Indians were not even allowed to use bathrooms in downtown Santa Fe. Instead, artists from the Pueblos surrounding the city were asked to send their works, mostly ceramics, to the market, where the wares would compete for $5 best-in-category prizes. Single pots sold for $3.50 apiece. The current version of Indian Market features a broad array of art and objects, ranging from pottery to painting to jewelry and ceremonial attire. There collectors discover new artists, gallery owners leave business cards at the booths of dozens of potential clients, and artists, many of whom live in remote communities, catch up with their friends and colleagues.

"The show is still juried. Three-member volunteer teams of artists, gallery owners, collectors and curators assign prizes in nearly 400 categories, making the Friday evening Indian Market preview at the Sweeney Convention Center look like a farewell banquet at summer camp. The ribbons carry a nominal cash prize, along with a commercial kick.

"'Collectors tend to buy ribbons,' said Diego Romero, a 37-year-old ceramicist from Cochiti Pueblo outside Santa Fe, who has participated in Indian Market since 1992. Mr. Romero transforms Mimbres bowls - a prehistoric pueblo ceramic style - into works of stinging social commentary. More innovative than most of the work at Indian Market, Mr. Romero's art has been both sought and snubbed at the show. 'I've had shows where I've won multiple prizes,' he said. 'And I've had shows where I've walked away with nothing. That tends to determine how I do here.' This year, Mr. Romero won a best-in- division award for 'Storyteller,' a Mimbres-style bowl decorated with a scene of an Indian family watching the Simpsons on their living room television set. The piece sold for $5,000 as soon as the artist opened his booth after arriving late at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday. Mr. Romero is known outside of Indian art circles he has pieces in collections at the Cartier Foundation in Paris and at the British Museum in London. Yet unlike the Indian art superstars Dan Namingha and Tony Abeyta, Mr. Romero continues to rent booth space at Indian Market, saying it's important that Indian artists do so. 'We're not just desert braves in moccasins and G- strings,' he said. 'That's why I do the work I do, and why I show it at Indian Market. I feel I have a duty here.' "

"Indian Market is not without detractors. Many of Santa Fe's 65,000 residents resent the annual invasion of flashily dressed people in high-priced cars looking for art that is well beyond the means of most locals. Some Santa Feans refer to the show as Indian Markup. Longtime collectors complain that newcomers now hire surrogates to wait in line overnight at up to a dozen booths, staking claims to the best pieces and spoiling the small-town spirit of the show.

"With no real rival, Indian Market enjoys a predominance in the field that some Indian artists complain tends to produce homogeneous, repetitive work geared for weekend art warriors and not for serious collectors or scholars. 'This market is entirely driven by the patron,' said Joanna Bigfeather, a Cherokee installation artist and the director of Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts Museum. 'And the patron wants the art to look Indian.' "Ms. Bigfeather participated in Indian Market for more than a decade. At her last one, in 1997, she was shocked when several potential clients asked her to alter a series of provocative pieces so that they would appear less disturbing. 'Unfortunately, being admitted to Indian Market is a stamp of success,' she said. 'Artists tend to look at this show as if it's the Land of Oz.'

"Yet the most frequent complaint from artists is that they cannot get into Indian Market. For years, the Southwest Association of Indian Artists has operated a two-tier system that admits Indian Market veterans almost by default but puts new artists through a rigorous application process. Barbara Walzer, who took over as executive director of the association last year, said she would like to adopt a more equitable system in which each applicant is judged on merit, not prestige or tenure.

"'The question is, what should Market be?' she said. 'We have to come up with a policy that would let younger artists in and that would let older artists exit through attrition, without shame or embarrassment. And this is tricky - just like assigning booths on the plaza is tricky, with 100 tribes, many of whom have historical rivalries. If you think that doing a seating plan for a White House dinner is tricky, you ought to spend some time in our office two weeks before Market.' "

"Don't Jeer at the Souvenirs They May Be the Real Deal" read the headline on Joshua Brockman's story in the September 2 New York Times on a current exhibit at a Santa Fe museum. Datelined Santa Fe, the story began: "Get your kitsch on Route 66. As New Mexico looks back on the 75th anniversary of Route 66, American Indian mementos still figure prominently in the trading posts and roadside stands across the Southwest. "'Tourist Icons: Native American Kitsch, Camp and Fine Art Along Route 66,' an exhibition at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture of the Museum of New Mexico through Feb. 3, explores the connection between fine art and souvenirs, a thread that endures in many of the crafts that were sold last month at Indian Market here.

"'This novelty tradition has really fused with the fine-art tradition in a lot of the work that is being done today,' said Duane Anderson, director of the museum. 'At Indian Market, the full spectrum is represented.'

"American Indian souvenirs first became popular here in the 1880's with the rise of railroad tourism. The flow of visitors increased dramatically, however, with the advent of automobile tourism in the late 1920's. Indian artists responded by creating new art forms and variations on traditional crafts. A necklace from Santo Domingo Pueblo, for example, contains bits of black battery casings and red phonograph records in lieu of jet and coral, precious materials that would have made the jewelry too costly for the automobile tourist, who was typically less affluent than the railroad traveler.

"Many of the 850 handmade and commercially manufactured objects on display in 'Tourist Icons,' including some 300 pairs of salt-and-pepper shakers, are anonymous works created in miniature specifically for the automobile sightseer, who had limited space in the car to store purchases. Small ceramic models of pueblos and kivas (ceremonial chambers) or female figures grinding corn or weaving helped explain native life to outsiders. Generic objects like candlesticks, ashtrays and animal figures were also transformed into Southwestern art using hand-dug clay and traditional firing processes.

"'This particular exhibit challenges a very popular notion that all of this tourist material is unimportant, trivial, artistically inferior and that anyone who would buy some of this "stuff" clearly had poor taste,' said Joseph Traugott, curator of the show. Even celebrated artists produced souvenirs to make a living. Fannie Nampeyo's bird ashtray and Maria Martinez's three- inch black-on-black plate in the exhibit are displayed alongside larger and more intricate examples of pottery that would have been sold at Indian Market or to trading posts.

"What's more, members of the Tesuque Pueblo pioneered the 'rain god' figurative tradition in the late 1800's specifically for the tourist trade. Still practiced today, this 120-year-old ceramic form represents the longest continuously practiced figurative-art tradition in the Southwest, said Mr. Anderson, author of the forthcoming book 'When Rain Gods Reigned.' 'They've been rejected as "tourist junk," and yet to the Tesuque people who make them, they've become a means of individual self-expression for the artist and also a symbol of village identity,' he said.

"The growth in automobile tourism also accelerated the secularization of sacred icons. Hopi Kachina earrings, Kachina candles and a Mud Head whiskey decanter from the Ezra Brooks Distilling Company reveal the way in which Indian religious imagery was appropriated by both native artists and outside companies for commercial uses.

"Still, the revival of ancient design elements and the use of new materials remains a hallmark of contemporary Indian artists. Kathleen Nez, a potter who received a 2001 Southwestern Association for Indian Arts fellowship, modeled the design of her doughnut-shaped water canteen on a triangular vessel of the ancient Mimbres people. 'It's a melding of both a contemporary ceramic tradition and a prehistoric design tradition,' Ms. Nez said."

The obituary of tribal art expert Terrence Barrow appeared in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on September 10.

The obituary by Diana Leone began, "Noted Maori and Polynesian art expert Terence Tui A Tane Barrow, 78, died Aug. 31 at his Honolulu home, leaving to his son Leonard the job of finishing his 21st book. The New Zealand native had a Cambridge University doctorate in Pacific anthropology and worked 20 years as a curator for the New Zealand National Museum before coming to Honolulu in 1964, said his wife, Hisako. He was the Bishop Museum's Polynesian Collection curator from 1964-68 and an author and representative for Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co. from 1965-85, Hisako Barrow said. "'All along, he did tribal art appraising," she said. 'He was very famous -- anyone who wanted to authenticate Polynesian art would call. He got calls from Paris, London, Christie's in New York.' She described her husband, who was Caucasian but had a Maori middle name, as 'very creative, very knowledgeable. We traveled all over the world together. He has friends all over the world. I had a most unusual life through him.' "Among Barrow's 20 hardback book titles: 'Maori Wood Sculpture,' 'Maori Art of New Zealand,' 'Women of Polynesia,' 'The Art of the South Sea Islands,' 'The Decorative Arts of New Zealand Maori,' 'The Art of Tahiti,' 'Music of the Maori,' 'Incredible Hawaii' and 'More Incredible Hawaii.' "'His book "Art and Life in Polynesia" put him on the map,' said Barrow's son Leonard, who is studying toward a doctorate in Polynesian anthropology and hopes to finish the book his father was working on the last few years. "As a father, no one could have had such a helpful, kind and compassionate teacher,' Leonard Barrow said. 'During the four years he was ill, it forced me to hurry and learn his ideas on Polynesian art and culture. "'He was open-minded," Leonard Barrow said. "He fought the Japanese in World War II and then married one,' referring to his mother, a Japanese native. "'We lived in three worlds: Japan, New Zealand and Hawaii,' said Hisako Barrow, who will return her husband's ashes to his homeland this fall..."

Roy Sieber, Research Scholar Emeritus at the National Museum Of African Art, died in September. This obituary was taken from U. S. Newswire, September 19, and was supplied by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art.

Datelined Washington, DC, the obituary begins, "Roy Sieber, 78, Research Scholar Emeritus, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, died on Friday, Sept. 14, in Bloomington, Ind. Sieber, the first scholar in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in African art history, joined the Smithsonian in 1983 and was responsible for evaluating collection research and developing standards for acquisitions. He was co-curator and co-author of the exhibition and catalogue "African Art in the Cycle of Life" in 1987-88, the museum's inaugural exhibition on the National Mall, and worked tirelessly until his retirement in 1994. Highly respected around the world, Sieber's contributions to the field of African art and more broadly to the understanding of the African humanities were unsurpassed. As a museum professional, he channeled scholarly concerns through the medium of African art exhibitions and, as an Indiana University professor guided countless students through the learning process.

"'Dr. Sieber was a dedicated teacher who freely shared his vast knowledge,' said Roslyn Walker, director of the National Museum of African Art, and Sieber student. 'He generously gave of his time to his students and never failed to recognize the contributions they made to his exhibitions and programs. We have lost a great man and a very dear friend.'

"Sieber shaped much of what is today known and understood about African art in all its forms. He received the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association for his achievements and lifetime distinctions. After his retirement, Sieber remained extremely active in teaching, writing, consulting, collecting and curating exhibitions. He assisted with the development of exhibitions at the National Museum of African Art, the Dayton Art Institute and the Museum for African Art, New York. His publications included catalogues that accompanied seminal exhibitions on the art of northern Nigeria, on African textiles and furniture and household objects as well as numerous other articles on African art. Most recently he wrote the introduction to 'Selected Works from the Collection of The National Museum of African Art,' 'Hair in African Art and Culture' and an essay in 'Extreme Canvas: Hand-painted Movie Posters from Ghana.' He lectured on African art at numerous institutions in the United States and abroad including the Smithsonian Institution, Columbia University, the University of Florida, the University of Ghana, Ife University in Nigeria and Indiana University, where he was Rudy Professor Emeritus and former curator of African and ethnographic arts for the university's museum..."

"Douglas Newton, Curator Emeritus at the Metropolitan, Dead at 80" read the headline of Newton's September 22 obituary in the New York Times.

By Times art writer Holland Cotter, the obituary began, "Douglas Newton, curator emeritus of the department of the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and an innovator in designing museum displays of non-Western art, died on Wednesday at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. He was 80.

"Born Bryan Leslie Douglas Newton to English parents on a Malayasian rubber plantation in 1920, and educated in England, he worked as an editor, journalist and scriptwriter for the BBC before moving to New York in 1956. The following year he joined the Museum of Primitive Art, newly established by Nelson A. Rockefeller in a converted Manhattan brownstone on West 54th Street, as an assistant curator. In 1960 he became a full curator, and in 1974 the museum's director, succeeding Robert Goldwater.

"Mr. Newton organized 64 exhibitions for the Museum of Primitive Art, which is now defunct. His groundbreaking designs, with atmospheric lighting and striking installations, brought the museum both critical praise and public attention and had long-term influences on museum displays of so-called primitive art. 'He knows the fine line between showing sympathy for a tradition on its own terms and manipulating the tradition in terms of Western practices and expectations,' wrote Robert Farris Thompson, a Yale art historian, in 1978.

"Mr. Newton went on to become the principal designer for major exhibitions in other museums, including 'The Art of Oceania, Africa and the Americas' (1969) and 'Te Maori' (1984) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and 'The Art of the Pacific Islands' (1979) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

"A fluent writer, he produced many monographs, including 'Crocodile and Cassowary: Religious Art of the Upper Sepik River, New Guinea' (1971) and 'Arts of the South Seas' (1999). He was also the editor of more than two dozen books on the art of the Pacific Islands. He was recently given the Manu Daula Award by the Pacific Arts Association for a lifetime of work devoted to the arts of Oceania.

"Mr. Newton was appointed consultative chairman of the department of primitive art at the Metropolitan Museum in 1974, and department chairman in 1975. That year, he began to oversee the transfer of the art collections, library and photograph study collection of the Museum of Primitive Art to the Metropolitan, which was given the collections by Mr. Rockefeller in memory of his son Michael, an anthropologist who died in 1961 while on an expedition in New Guinea. The works were displayed in the museum's new Michael C. Rockefeller wing. Mr. Newton supervised the design team for the wing, which opened in 1982. Its debut was hailed as placing the art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas on a museological footing with ancient and modern art.

"From 1982 until his retirement in 1990, Mr. Newton was the museum's Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Fried chairman of the department of primitive art. He was also senior adviser to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and was recently an adviser to the Quai Branly in Paris..."

Media File

Excerpts from recent magazine and newspaper articles of interest to the membership. All opinions are those of the writers of the stories and of the people quoted, not of ATADA.  Members are encouraged to submit press clippings for publication in future Newsletters.

On July 13, Cathy Horyn wrote on The New York Times fashion page that "All manner of beaded jewelry has taken off this summer, from prayer bead-inspired elastic bracelets to Indian beadwork chokers."

"Colorful Huichol Indian bracelets," the story continues, "are $85 to $120 at Saks Fifth Avenue, and chokers are $198 at Henri Bendel. Necklaces of turquoise or coral by Erickson Beamon are $135 to $495 at Barneys."

Also in July, in the New York Magazine feature Gothamstyle, Maura Egan writes, "Despite sweltering temperatures, the city's fashionable crowd is stepping out in ankle-high suede Navajo boots."

"Handmade by an Arizona craftsman," the story continues, "they were originally designed for nearby tribes. When David Rees, one of the owners of the Chelsea jewelry store Ten Thousand Things, spotted the shoes during a visit to the Southwest, he commissioned the craftsmen to make them for his East Coast customers. The boots ($115 for suede, $130 for leather) have a rounded deer-hide sole that is satisfyingly Pradaesque, and come in designer colors like bright orange and purple. European customers can't get enough of them, Rees's co-owner Ron Anderson explains, because 'they think they are truly American.' "

"Navajo Lawsuits Contend U.S. Government Failed the Tribe in Mining Royalty Deals,"is the headline of a July 18, 1999 New York Times story by Barry Meier.

On the eve of a 1985 ruling by John W. Fritz, an Interior department official who wanted to sharply increase the coal mining fees paid to the Navajo tribe, the Peabody Coal Company started what Meier calls "a high-stakes lobbying effort aimed at Donald P. Hodel, then Secretary of the Interior. Company lawyers even drafted a memo, issued by Mr. Hodel, that told Mr. Fritz to withhold his ruling. Mr. Fritz's stillborn decision is at the heart of two legal actions brought by the Navajos, including a civil lawsuit disclosed last month against Peabody Group, the parent of Peabody Coal, and others. The action claims that Peabody Coal and two utilities unfairly influenced Federal officials to derail Mr. Fritz's report, a decision the tribe says cost it $600 million in lost mining royalties. For his part, Mr. Hodel, now an energy consultant in Longmont, Colorado, says he did not recall the Navajo coal episode but that he always acted the best interest of the tribes.

"Choctaw Chief Leads His Mississippi Tribe Into the Global Market" reads the headline in a feature story by Joel Millman in The Wall Street Journal on July 23,1999.

Datelined Empalme, Mexico, the story begins, "Among chief executives, Phillip Martin is unique. That's not only because he runs a conglomerate that does everything from make auto parts to run casinos. And it's not just because he is a real chief, as in chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. He is noteworthy because over the past 30 years he has helped to bring a wealth of jobs within the border of the 25,000-acre Choctaw reservation scattered over patches of land in nine counties of central Mississippi. Now that so many local Choctaws are earning too much to compete for low-wage factory work, he is doing what many U.S. CEOs have done. He has taken his business to Mexico, making Chahta Enterprise the first Native American-owned company to leave the reservation and take a giant step into the global economy. 'We started in this business competing with the Japanese, but now all our competition is coming from Mexico,' says the 73-year-old chief, now in his seventh term as leader of the tribe. Mr. Martin says the North American Free Trade Agreement that went into effect in 1994 meant that Chahta had to join the migration south or lose its contracts. "The factory is located 300 miles south of Tucson and makes electric-wire harnesses for car switches for Ford Motor Co.

" Chahta's Mexican operation," Millman writes, "expected to gross over $100 million this year, helps fund investments that have created a variety of jobs: in tribal schools and in the hotels, casinos and golf courses that now dot the reservation thanks to Chief Martin. He brought an American Greetings Co. printing operation to the area, and plans to have a plastic-molding factory up and running sometime next year. 'Business never stands still, and manufacturing is always changing.' Chief Martin says. 'The challenge now is to diversify. But believe me, we're in a better condition to compete than we ever were before.' "

"Navajos Welcome Recovered Artifacts," is the headline of Leslie Linthicum's September 17 story in the Albuquerque Journal.

"Sometime in the late 1980s," the story begins, "a grave robber rooted around in a cave and came away with a remarkably intact and rare leather mask that had been used in Navajo religious ceremonies for hundreds of years. The mask sat around the grave robber's house in Farmington, then was sold to one Santa Fe gallery and then to another. It found its way into a lighted display case in the office of a wealthy Tucson, Arizona prehistoric art collector and finally into the hands of the police. The mask and three other prehistoric artifacts will end their time as illegal plunder today when they are welcomed back to the Navajo Reservation with the blessings of a medicine man. The ceremony, held in the Navajo capital of Window Rock, will end nearly a decade of work to track down the mask and other artifacts, prosecute the man responsible for stealing them from public lands and identify the tribe that is their rightful owner. The case began when Noel Johns, a special agent with the Bureau of Land Management, posed as a college professor to get information about a suspected dealer of illegal fossils. The investigation led to Patrick Williams, a native of the Farmington area. Federal agents in a yearlong investigation now believe Williams was responsible for looting hundreds and maybe thousands of Indian artifacts from public lands over a 30-year career. Williams, now 44, said in a statement to police several years ago that he had been hunting for artifacts since he was 10 years old. He admitted to taking pots, fossils and wooden and leather artifacts along with Mimbres and Chacoan pottery. Williams likened his artifact hunting to an addiction and told police, 'I found it hard to do anything else.' He told the police he spent the thousands of dollars that galleries and collectors paid for the artifacts on drugs and prostitutes. Williams has pleaded guilty to selling archeological artifacts, a federal felony, and received four years probation and a $5,000 fine." Williams is also awaiting trial on a charge of possession of methamphetamine Officers were satisfied with Williams' probationary sentence in light of the drug charges that could keep him in jail. "'He was a rabid collector who had been digging for years,' said Johns, 'and we're just happy to get him off the street.' Neither the gallery owners nor the Tucson businessman who bought the mask for $25,000 were charged with any crimes."

"Eagle Feather Honor Seems Mixed Blessing," reads the headline for Dan Morain's story in the Arizona Republic on September 11 (reprinted from the Los Angeles Times).

"Among Native Americans, there is no honor higher than receiving an eagle feather," the story begins. "It's a symbol of high achievement and great spiritual power. Few Native Americans ever attain such status. So California Governor's Gray Davis' aides used reverential tones to announce that an eagle feather had been bestowed upon their boss at a meeting with Indians last week. The presentation was made as several dozen Native Americans and Davis negotiated the future of casinos on tribal land. In the non-Indian world, however, possession of an eagle feather is known by a different term: misdemeanor. It's punishable by six months in jail or a $1,000 fine or both - unless the person possessing it is a Native American or has a government permit. Davis has no permit from state or federal wildlife officials to possess the plumage. Whether Davis has earned the honor is another question. 'It has been given,' Clarence Atwell, chairman of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, said. 'We'll just let it sit there and work on him.'

"Show Unmasks Rare Find: Series of coincidences lead to expert appraisal," read the headline in David Whitnoy's story in the September 12 Arizona Republic.

The story begins, "When Marcelyn Carroll trudged of to a San Francisco taping of Antiques Roadshow two years ago, she had no idea the object her family kept stored in a black plastic bag for so many years would stir such a fuss. Now Carroll and her grown children are on the prowl for a museum to display what turned out to be an extremely rare hunting mask made by Alaska Eskimos in the early 1800s. The mask is worth at least $65,000, though in some ways, it's priceless." When it was suggested that the mask be displayed in a museum in Alaska, Carroll, who lives in Northern California, said she wanted to keep the mask closer to her family's home. Donald Ellis, who appraised the mask on the PBS program, told Ms. Carroll, "there are less than 25 of these known to exist in the world today."

It wasn't just the Anasazi! "Neanderthals were Cannibals, Study of French Cave Indicates," is the headline of an October 1 story in the Arizona Republic.

Lauren Neergaard's Associated Press story begins, "In a dark cave in southern France 100,000 years ago, a group of hunters bent over their meal, expertly slicing flesh from carcasses and sucking marrow from the bones. But a closer examination uncovers a grisly scene: These were Neanderthals, and they butchered six fellow people just like they did deer, the first real proof, say scientists, that Neanderthals practiced cannibalism.

Whether some Neanderthals ate their own kind has been a controversy since the turn of the century, when Neanderthal bones bearing suspicious scars were found in Croatia. How to determine cannibalism from ancient bones is tricky. Tim White [a paleontologist from the University of California, Berkeley] published a book in 1992 about cannibalism among Anasazi Indians of the U.S. Southwest that concluded that certain markings could differentiate bones cut for consumption from those otherwise damaged."

On October 4, in the Arizona Republic, a story by Kerry Fehr-Snyder was headlined, "Tucson Lab to Help Settle Kennewick Man Controversy: Furor is raging over source of skeleton."

"It's just a tiny pile of bone shavings inside a Tupperware bowl in a University of Arizona file drawer. But it's also a clue to one of the biggest controversies facing American anthropology. Were ancestors of American Indians alone as the first humans in North America? Or were there also Caucasoids - people with physical features generally associated with Europeans - living here about the same time? The scientific, political and legal furor raging over the skeletal remains called Kennewick Man goes to the heart of human's earliest history in North America.

The battle has reached the highest level. Last year, the Clinton administration opposed a bill to allow study of Kennewick man. Last week, however, a federal judge ordered that the study go forward. Ever since 1996, when two students found the skull to the 10,000-year-old skeleton on the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington, the remains have been caught in a tug of war. On one side are Native Americans and federal officials who are blocking further study of the skeleton, claiming it should be reburied under the Native American Graves protection Act of 1990. One the other side is a group of eight scientists [who] filed suit in federal court asserting that the skeleton, found on federal land, should be studied to better understand human development and migration in North America."

In her Antiques column on October 22, Wendy Moonan wrote that "diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but beads are for everybody. Their appeal is ancient, universal and primal."

Moonan is reviewing A Beaded Universe: Strands of Culture, an exhibit at the American Craft Museum in New York. A photograph that accompanies the article shows a dance cape of woven beadwork and fabric from New Guinea. "The show begins with a time line illustrating that beads go back 40,000 years then it documents this history with displays of exceptional pieces on three floors,"writes Moonan. The show includes an eight-foot-wide priest's robe from the Yoruba culture in Nigeria, a colorful Ndebele beaded wedding costume and a Zulu apron with rows of memory beads, Indonesian wooden baby carriers covered in cowrie shells and a Tibetan turquoise and coral neck collar. Pieces from Japan, Europe and America, including a Navajo deerskin dress with beaded tassels, are also on display. The beadwork is on loan from the Bead Museum of Glendale, Arizona, several private collectors and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, where the show originated.

Rita Reif writes about the exhibit "Talavera Poblana: Four Centuries of a Mexican Ceramic Tradition," on display at the Americas Society Art Gallery in New York, in her Art/Architecture column in The New York Times on October 24.

The show of 86 pieces comes mostly from American and Mexican museums. Reif discusses the history of "the innovative potters from Puebla" who "have taken dazzling designs of other cultures and reproduced them. Then, to mark them as Mexican, they have added images of a cactus here, a parrot there.

The first jars, basins and platters to be made [in Puebla] reflected the bold shapes and elaborate patterns of Spanish and Islamic cultures. Then, by the early 17th century, they added colorful Italian majolica, blue-and-white patterns from Ming porcelains and folk-based patterns based on Flemish and Dutch models. The aim was to match the impressive works being made back in Spain by the country's finest ceramists in Talavera de la Reina, a town near Toledo that became Spain's Delft. Just how brilliantly these Spanish potters succeeded in transforming the traditional terra cotta ceramics in Mexico is the little-known story that is revealed," Reif says, in this exhibit. The show runs through December 12.

Another fashion update, this time from the October 25 issue of People magazine.

"Am I Blue?" asks the headline of the magazine's Style Watch feature. "Suddenly stars are blue and you can be too," reads the text. "Turquoise - the semi-precious, sky-colored stone long identified with the Southwest - is popping up on bracelets and necklaces. 'It has a certain mystique,' says jeweler Don Lucas, who outfitted Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar with a turquoise bracelet for the Emmys. 'It's such a bright, attractive color,' agrees Ally McBeal's Portia de Rossi, who recently bought a ring and bracelet decorated with the gemstone." The story also touts turquoise's alleged ability to ward off illness, and is illustrated with photos of the likes of Sharon Stone and Sophia Loren decked out in blue jewelry. Unfortunately, none of the turquoise jewelry shown appears to be Native American in origin.

"An Ancient Skull Challenges Long-Held Theories," is the headline for a story datelined Rio de Janeiro in the October 26 Science Times section of The New York Times.

"A human skull that is prominently displayed at the National Museum here has been attracting crowds and controversy in equal measure since it was first unveiled early this month," Larry Rother's story begins. "After two decades in storage, the fossilized cranium has now been identified by Brazilian scientists as the oldest human remains ever recovered in the Western hemisphere. The skull is believed to be that of a young woman, nicknamed Luzia, who is believed to have roamed the savannah of south-central Brazil some 11,500 years ago. Even more startling, a reconstruction of her cranium undertaken in Britain this year indicates that her features appear to be Negroid rather than Mongoloid, suggesting that the Western Hemisphere may have initially been settled not only earlier than thought, but by a people distinct from the ancestors of today's North and South American Indians. 'We can no longer say that the first colonizers of the Americas came from the north of Asia, as previous models have proposed,' said Dr. Walter Neves, an anthropologist at the University of Sao Paulo, who made the initial discovery... 'The skeleton is nearly 2,000 years older than any skeleton ever found in the Americas, and it does not look like those of Amerindians or North Asians.' ...If the date is confirmed, the find could transform thinking about the peopling of the Americas. It may be some time before that work is completed, but meanwhile, archeologists here and abroad say the find is potentially very important."

On the same day, a story datelined Salmon, Idaho headlined "Seeking Land for Tribe of Girl Who Helped Lewis and Clark" by Timothy Egan was on the front page of The New York Times.

"Here in the valley where the Shoshone Sacagawea led Lewis and Clark to one of the most serendipitous encounters in the annals of discovery," the story begins, "the stores are full of Indian art, the pastures are grazed by Indian-bred horses, and the land itself is imprinted with Indian names. But there are no American Indians here. The Lemhi Shoshone, living links to the teen-age girl who was instrumental in leading the Corps of Discovery over the Continental Divide in 1805, have been all but erased from the place they called home for hundreds of years. The 400 or so Lemhi live on a reservation 200 miles south of here, on desert land set aside for two much bigger tribes. Orphans in an arid land, the Lemhi say they have been down so long that they use an ironic phrase to describe their current status. 'Basically, we are the Indians to the other Indians,' said Rod Ariwite, a leader of the Lemhi Shoshone. But he tribe's luck may be about to change. The Lemhi have asked President Clinton to carve out a small piece of Federal land in the Salmon River country on the Idaho-Montana border as a place where the tribe can tell its story to the hordes of Lewis and Clark history buffs, honor their dead and try to stitch some of the past to the present. As it is, the only visible Indian in this valley is the Salmon High School mascot, a chieftain who represents 'the home of the savages' as the school sign says. 'What we're asking for is not very big,' Mr. Ariwite said. 'Let us build a center here-in this valley where we have always lived - for our first lady. The Lewis and Clark bicentennial is our last fight. Let us come home.' "

On August 4, 1999, in her Antiques column in The New York Times, Wendy Moonan asked the reader to "Try to imagine Ellsworth Kelly, Josef Albers and Mark Rothko working 2,500 years ago in Peru. They would be using the same lexicon of abstract art - concentric circles, stripes, squares and triangles - but working entirely with exotic feathers instead of paint.

"Now imagine," Moonan continues, "that their finest creations had been placed in burial tombs, only to be discovered in the 20th century. You now understand the impact that ancient Peruvian feather art has had on today's sensibilities." Moonan is writing about an exhibit in Bonn, Germany called "Orinoco-Parima, Indian Societies in Venezuela: The Cisneros Collection." The show runs through February 27, 2000 and includes weapons, baskets, musical instruments, ceremonial artifacts and feather art collected by Gustavo and Patricia Cisneros of New York.

Moonan quotes James Reid, author of "Magic Feathers," to be published in 2000, saying, "The textile museums have missed the boat on feather art because all they focus on is warp and weft. The modern art museums shy away because they call it artisan craftwork. I want to do a show displaying feather works next to paintings by Morris Louis, Brice Marden and Kenneth Noland." Moonan lists three New York galleries that carry feather art: Merrin, Throckmorton Fine Art and Gail Martin. Prices range from a few thousand dollars to occasionally more than $100,000 for a single feather work.

On August 27 in The New York Times, a story headlined "Tensions Grow After 2 Indians Are Killed," was written by Keith Bradsher and was datelined Whiteclay, Nebraska.

The story refers to the murders of two Sioux men on June 8 (see previous Newsletter), and to the shrine that Sioux have created at the place where Wilson Black Elk Jr. and Ronald Hard Heart were found. At the shrine, offerings of chocolate bars, cigarettes, plastic flowers and eagle feathers are surrounded by a wood fence.

"People come to this shrine not in mourning but in anger," writes Bradsher. "For the two men had been beaten to death and the still-unsolved slayings have ignited simmering Sioux anger here in the low, grassy hills along Nebraska's border with South Dakota. Many Indians are convinced that the men were killed by whites and that white sheriff's deputies in northwestern Nebraska are covering up the crime and might even have been involved. The sheriff's office denies this and has vowed to help find the killers. Indians have marched in protests every Saturday for two months. The first march, in late June, turned violent, with demonstrators looting and burning a store here that sold beer and groceries. About 20 Indians have set up an encampment next to the shrine and have vowed to stay until the killings are solved.

Some of the up to 1,500 Indians who participated in the first march assert that two eagles, a rare sight here, had flown overhead after the demonstration to show that the dead men approved of the efforts on their behalf."

"Little Tribe, It's Modest Casino Threatened, Takes on U.S." reads the headline in a story by Pam Belluck in The New York Times on August 28, 1999 about a fight over the Santee Sioux's tribal casino.

"A tiny Indian tribe in a sparse slice of northeastern Nebraska found itself today at the forefront of an increasingly heated national debate over the matter of where tribal sovereignty ends and state control begins," the story begins. "The issue was the tribe's operation of a shoe-box casino on its reservation. Today that little casino nearly lead a Federal district judge in Omaha to take an unprecedented step: the jailing of tribal leaders in a clash over reservation gambling. Although the judge ultimately decided against jailing the leaders now, the tribe hardly won a conclusive victory. [The judge] suggested that Federal prosecutors might want to pursue a criminal rather than civil case against them, and declared once more, as he had repeatedly, that the casino was illegal because it lacked state approval ever since opening three and a half years ago. The lack of such approval violates a Federal law, the Indian Gaming Act of 1988, which requires an Indian tribe to strike an accord or compact with the state in which its reservation lies if it want to open a casino. There are about 145 compacts between states and various tribes. But Nebraska, opposing any casinos within its borders, has refused to negotiate with the Santee Sioux."

That same week, the California Supreme Court "overturned a ballot measure that would have allowed expansion of legalized gambling on Indian reservations. The decision dealt a severe blow to tribes' ambitions to build a gambling mecca to compete with Las Vegas. In addition, Florida, Kansas and Alabama, trying to block the opening of Indian casinos within their borders, have sued the United States Interior Department with the aim of overturning new rules that allow the Federal government to license tribal casinos in cases where states are reluctant to negotiate compacts.

The Santee Sioux is hoping that the new Interior Department rules "will allow us to work out a legitimate means of running the casino, but that process, even if successful, could take years. 'We're not trying to break anyone's laws.' Said Thelma Thomas, the casino's manager. 'We're just trying to make life better for our people.'"

In the September 1 issue of Art & Auction, Steven Vincent wrote a story headlined, "Denver Museum Loses Suit."

"Was the Denver Art Museum a victim of its own shoddy record keeping or of the questionable activities of a former curator?" Vincent asks. "A ruling by U.S. Federal Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan, has concluded that the museum's record-keeping was to blame for its travails, as she refused to uphold DAM's claim to the proceeds of a sale of a Navajo blanket auctioned by Sotheby's New York on December 4, 1997. Arguing that the blanket belonged in its collection, the museum filed suit on May 4, 1998, asking for the sale's proceeds as compensation.'

The blanket was sold as part of the de Menil sale for $431,500.

As Vincent recounts the story, DAM bought the blanket from a Denver dealer for $650 in 1950. In 1970, then-curator Norman Feder traded six textiles - including the blanket in question, now valued at $1,500 - to "Denver dealer James Economos." Economos sold the textiles to George Terasaki in New York, who then sold the blanket to Adelaide de Menil.

Richard Conn, Feder's successor, realized the blanket was missing in 1975, and in 1997, native arts curator Nancy Blomberg saw a picture of the blanket in a Sotheby's catalogue. But the judge ruled that DAM "failed to establish that [the blanket] was stolen or otherwise illegally removed," giving de Menil title to the blanket and the proceeds of its sale.

In a review in the September 13 issue of The New Yorker magazine of "The Ecological Indian: Myth and History"by Shepard Krech III, a professor of anthropology at Brown, Nicholas Lemann calls Krech's writing persona "that of a cautious, unbiased evidence examiner" who "sets out to -well, he'd say to evaluate the notion of an authentic Indian tradition that prefigures contemporary environmentalism. But demolish it would be more like it."

"Krech's book," Lemann's review continues, "is a series of summaries of the academic debates about how environmentally aware the Indians were." Krech mentions a 1967 article by Paul Martin "accusing Indians of the Pleistocene era of having waged a Nazi-style 'blitzkrieg' on large animals in the American West, which caused the extinction not only of species we've all heard of, like the woolly mammoth and the mastodon," but also, to quote Krech, of such creatures as 'single-hump camels, stocky six-foot-long capybaras, five-hundred-pound giant beavers, four-horned antelopes, bison-sized shrub oxen and stag moose with fantastic multiple-palmated and tined antlers."Over the years, Martin's critics have come back with the theory that these species were killed off by asteroid showers and climate changes, not by Indians. Krech reviews the historical record [and] concludes, judiciously, that 'it is safest not to rule out a role for Native Americans altogether.'"

In his book, Krech also deals with "the opposite Nazi-analogizing argument, made by David Stannard in his 1992 book, 'American Holocaust,' that millions of Indians were indirectly killed by Europeans through their destruction of the habitat and their introduction of new and deadly diseases to which Indians had no immunity." Again, Lemann says, Krech "painstakingly guides us through the evidence and dismisses the idea that Europeans intentionally infected Indians. He also points out that some reduction of the Indian population is probably attributable to Indian customs such as female infanticide and to the exhaustion or the mismanagement of resources." Krech believes, for instance, that the Hohokam "may have unwittingly done themselves in by using up too much wood and by irrigating the soil with river water that was so salty - the Hohokam lived along the aptly named Salt River - that it gradually became impossible for crops to grow."

Close to half, Lemann says, of "The Ecological Indian" is devoted to a discussion of hunting practices. "If there is one example of the ecological insensitivity of whites that everybody knows, it is the vast slaughter of buffalo, which reduced the population of the animals from forty million in 1800 to nearly zero a hundred years later. Krech, startlingly, presents the Indians as having been full participants in it.

Perhaps the most wickedly contrarian of all Krech's arguments is that when contemporary Indians say that they, as he quotes one tribal leader, 'have hunted and fished in balance with nature for than 300 generations,' their belief is not only incorrect but represents the unconscious adaptation of a stereotype invented by whites. 'At first a projection of Europeans and European-Americans,' Krech writes, 'it eventually became a self-image.'"

On September 19, a story by Charlie LeDuff headlined "Indian Art You Won't See in the Casinos" focused on an exhibition at the American Craft Museum in New York City called "Head, Heart and Hands: Native American Craft Traditions in a Contemporary World." The show closed on October 10 and featured 50 works by artists from 10 tribes.

David R. McFadden, the museum's chief curator, said the show was part of a summer series "devoted to areas of American crafts that had previously been neglected by the museum, reflecting the changing sensibilities there since new leadership took over two years ago.

"The works in the show range from the purely traditional - like the Mohawk warrior mask constructed of wood, bark and feathers that was designed by David Neel, a Kwakiutl Indian - to pieces created through traditional methods but reflecting modern themes. For instance, the Ortiz family's ceramic figurines, including Joyce Ortiz's 'Hippies' and Virgil Ortiz's 'Mer-Maid and Mer-Man," are not conventional symbols of the their tribe, the Cochiti Pueblo, yet the pieces were created by the centuries old method of mixing clay with sand and firing them with cow dung."

The exhibit also includes works by ceramic artist Nathan Youngblood from Santa Clara Pueblo, Hopi potter Al Qoyawayma, Marcus Amerman, a Choctaw mixed-media artist and Preston Singleterry, who incorporates traditional Tlingit designs into his glass pieces ("'I'm hoping to bring Tlingit designs into the future. Glass is so permanent. It will never rot away like a piece of wood.'")

Also on September 19, a story on the front page of the National Edition of The New York Times was headlined "Reggae Rhythms Speak to an Insular Tribe." The story, by Bruce Weber, was datelined Kykoysmovi, Arizona and was accompanied by a photo of ecstatic reggae fans at a concert at the Hopi Veterans Center.

More than 2,000 fans, Weber wrote, "went crazy" when, "for six hours, the gymnasium-like auditorium throbbed with life, in spectacular isolation under a thrillingly bright half-moon. The concert - featuring top-flight bands like Steel Pulse, Third World and Culture and singers like Maxi Priest and Monifah - was, in the words of one Hopi, 'the biggest non-religious event of the year on the res.' But beyond that, it was a cross-cultural tradition that had been building here for more than two decades.

At the concert, there were Apache, Navajo, Havasupai, Ute and other tribe members, along with a fair number of Pahana - white people - who came from the surrounding states and up to 150 miles away.

"But [reggae] has found a special welcome - and an unlikely one - among the insular and secretive Hopi," writes Weber, "a farming tribe with a complex and closely held set of spiritual beliefs whose history in this area goes back to the beginning of the millennium and who are known for guarding their ancient culture from outside influences.

Especially for a younger generation of Hopis, reggae is the music that speaks for them and the preciousness of their heritage. It isn't as though dreadlocks are rampant on the reservation - Hopi longhairs favor ponytails and the occasional braid - and it isn't hero worship. There are more Michael Jordan jerseys being worn here than Bob Marley T-shirts. But ask Hopis under 50 what draws tribe members to reggae (some older Hopis do view a devotion to the music, particularly because of its association with marijuana, as a dimunition of traditional values). And they use words like 'relevance' and 'identification.' The relevance and identification go both ways."

When Joseph Hill, a lead singer for Culture, was asked what made a Hopiland gig special, he answered, "'Boy, everything.' And he spoke of the percussion in Hopi music 'that could well blend in with reggae,' and of the local landscape. In keeping with both cultures, as the language on both sides indicates, the bond between them seems spiritual and genuinely felt. Since 1984, there have been some 35 shows on the reservation, presented under a general billing in mock-Jamaican patois: Reggae Inna Hopiland." Bands are so eager to play for Hopis that they play for about a fourth of their usual rates. One young Hopi singer, Casper Lomayesva, who grew up listening to reggae and helping his grandfather tend the cornfields, has recorded a reggae-influenced CD on his own label, Third Mesa records, based in Phoenix.

A third story in The Times on September 19 was headlined "A Bully Pulpit for Africa's Lost Icons."

The story, written by Barbara Crossette, begins, "A quarter of a century ago, a 35-year-old African guerrilla leader with a B.A. from Temple University was lobbying the Untied Nations to help his nation, Namibia, gain independence.

He was struck by an eloquent plea in the General Assembly for the return of African art that had found its way into museums and private collections abroad.

"This year, that former rebel, Theo-Ben Gurirab, now Foreign Minister of Namibia, is back in New York as President of the General Assembly's 45th session. He plans to use his post to revive the campaign for the restoration of Africa's cultural heritage," asking that "these priceless African cultural treasures - artworks, icons, relics - be returned to their rightful owners.' Over the last decade, European Museums - including the British Museum and galleries in Paris - have occasionally found themselves embroiled in controversy over displays of art that African nations want returned.

The most famous pieces are a collection of sculptures, the Benin bronzes (actually made of brass), which were produced in an ancient kingdom now part of Nigeria but bordering the modern nation of Benin. They were confiscated by a British military force in 1897."

In a September 20, 1999 feature story in a New York Times series called "Public Lives," focused on Lawrence Small, the new chief executive of the Smithsonian Institution and "avid collector."

"Lawrence Small had finished showing a visitor all the tribal masks and totems in his vast collection of artifacts from the world's rain forests Frank Bruni's story begins. The former banker and corporate executive left his $4.2 million a year job as president of Fannie Mae, the government mortgage company, to lead the Smithsonian. Initially, Small was assisting the Smithsonian's search committee, but after several meetings, the committee realized they wanted Mr. Small for the job. "'Thrilled is a trite word these days,'" Mr. Small said of his new position, "'but I'd have to say I'm absolutely thrilled. It's completely, in my view, a stroke of fortune, and it is just a wonderful example of how life is made up of all sorts of twists and turns.'"

A color photograph of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado with a Cheyenne chief and W. Richard West, also a Cheyenne and director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, appeared on the front page of the National Edition of The New York Times on September 29, 1999. The three were photographed at the ground breaking ceremony of the museum's new Washington, D.C. building.

The story's headline on an inside page read "Smithsonian Making Room for Indian Museum." Written by Francis X. Clines, the story described the "place of honor on the Capitol Mall finally extended to the nation's Native Americans as construction began on a museum Indian leaders vowed would celebrate their history of indomitability, 'even if,'' said Indian leader and scholar Suzan Shown Harjo, "'it tells a sad story, even if it's a hard story to look at.' "

Hundreds of tribal members and chiefs attended. The museum, scheduled to open in 2002, will be a five-story center "dedicated to the story of more than 1,000 Native American communities in the Western hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego, from the Indians' lethal struggles of the past to those of the present." Participants at the ceremonies said the new museum should be "Part Louvre, part Holocaust Museum." The museum's goal, West said, will be "'to show and tell the world who and what we really are and to use our own voices in the telling."

At least six million visitors per year are expected.

On October 2, 1999, a letter to the editor of The New York Times from Ruth K. Franklin, ATADA Museum Member and curator of the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at Stanford University's Cantor Center for the Arts, was published. Ms. Franklin's letter was about New York City Mayor Giuliani's negative reaction to a painting of the Virgin Mary in the current "Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art that included elephant dung in its media.

"Mayor Giuliani, in his ethnocentric view," wrote Ms. Franklin, "may very well be oblivious to the symbolic uses of various animal and vegetable substances - including human hair and bones as well as elephant dung - in other cultures. There are many powerful substances used in African traditional art and ritual paraphernalia that might make the mayor uncomfortable. That does not invalidate their meaning.

"As Chris Ofili, the artist whose work is under attack, observed [in The Times], 'The people who are attacking this painting are attacking their own interpretation, not mine.'"

On Thursday, October 14, in the Circuits section of The New York Times, story headlined "For Indian Nations, Virtual Trade Routes, by Jonathan Lesser stated that the Web expands tribe-to-tribe commerce across the country.

"For members of the six-nation Iroquois Confederacy" the story begins, "it was once common to travel half a continent in foot to trade with other Indian nations. That trade became much more difficult in the 19th century, when many tribes were moved to reservations."

However, in the 1990s, Lesser writes, "nation-to-nation trade has become a hot topic among tribal leaders. The modern version of nation-to-nation trade involves goods ranging from T-shirts to computers, and the trade routes are virtual rather than physical. The marketplace is the Internet."

At a June, 1999, meeting of USET (United South and Eastern Tribes), Dan Unstead, a member of the Oneida Nation of central New York State and the Oneida's manager of Internet services, unveiled the Nation to Nation Trade Forum (bbs.oneida-nation.net), an online bulletin board meant to connect to USET's 23 member tribes to discuss trade.

"'We're just trying to get back to the basics of how the Indian people a long time ago did nation-to-nation trade, by finding out what products they had to offer,' "said Keller George, president of USET. "'Then it was done on a more personal basis, but today I think we can do it through technology.'"

"'There is significant production and development going on in Indian country,'" said Harry Wallace, chief of the Unkechaug tribe of Long Island, New York, who already sell organic coffee to the Oneida and Winnebago tribes. "'There is also significant marketing ability,'" Wallace adds.

"'Our people have been survivors because we've been able to adapt to whatever was there for us,' Mr. George said. 'We've gone from using natural resources to using technology. If we don't take advantage of the technology that is there for us today, then shame on us.'"

From the Summer 1999 issue of American Archeology, in a story called "On the Brink of a Cultural Collapse," Rob Crisell writes about the proposed restoration of a 17th century Seneca village near Rochester, New York.

"The nine-acre Steele site was a palisaded village," the story begins, "home to approximately 1,000 people between 1640 and 1655, placing it in the thick of dramatic changes in the Seneca's way of life during the 17th century. During this time, the Seneca became heavily involved in the fur trade and increasingly desirous of European trade goods. Archeologists have found some of the earliest gun parts at Steele, along with metalwork, trade beads and pottery."

Just in time for t basketball season, an AP story headlined "Navajo Star achieves His Dream at Lamar" was in the Sports section of The New York Times on October 31.

"At 20 years old," the story begins, "Bobby Manheimer is already a basketball legend on the Navajo Indian Reservation. He led Monument Valley High School in Kayenta, Ariz. to consecutive Class 3A championships and then set shooting records at Northern Pioneer Community College in Holbrook, Ariz. After marrying his high school sweetheart, Tara, this summer, he's now battling for a starting spot at Division I Lamar. ...His journey to Beaumont, Texas, from the Four Corners area...seems improbable at best. But according to Manheimer, and the message he preaches to his young Navajo fans at his annual roving basketball camp, anything is possible when you put everything into it. Manheimer learned commitment through necessity. He grew up in the shadow of Navajo Mountain in Utah in a community of about 300, just five miles north of the Arizona border. ...The nearest grocery store is 45 minutes away, giving one-stop shopping a new meaning. Despite growing up in a John Ford movie backdrop, Manheimer's athletic prowess did not spring out of nowhere. He inherited it. The dirt court on which Manheimer learned the game may not have been the blacktops of Chicago, but on the reservation, hoop dreams are just as strong. Manheimer's mother played basketball, as did all of his uncles...'On the reservation [says Manheimer] basketball is the biggest thing.' ...Navajo Mountain is 100 miles from Monument Valley High School, a commute Manheimer and his father made every day during his freshman year, the season he played his way into the varsity basketball team's starting lineup.

Eventually, he stayed with relatives in Kayenta, where he helped Monument Valley to its titles by averaging 18 and 20 points his junior and senior seasons, respectively. [His Lamar coach Mike] Deanne said it is too early to predict what any player's role will be, but it is obvious from Manheimer's individual workouts that Manheimer...is a very capable long-range shooter who can create off the dribble and make shots in bunches. He has not played a minute, but the legend has already converted the Four Corners basketball fans to Lamar Cardinals red. When Manheimer played in Arizona, his family never missed a game, nor did KTNN, the radio station that translated his games into Navajo for his elderly fans on the reservation. ...'Anything is possible [Manheimer says], 'if you put everything into it. That is what my mom and dad and uncles taught me. That's how I grew up. Knowing that anything that is out there you can get.' "

"New Answers to an Old Question: Who Got Here First?" reads the headline in the main story in the Science Times section of The New York Times on November 9. The story, by John Noble Wilford, is datelined Santa Fe, and is about the recent "Clovis and Beyond" conference. (For Forrest Fenn's report on the conference, please see his article in this [Resource Archive], as well as related stories in Media File.)

"For most of the 20th century," Wilford writes, "the solution to the mystery of the original Americans - where did they come from, when and how? - seemed as clear as the geography of the Bering Strait, the climate of the last Ice Age and the ubiquity of finely wrought stone hunting weapons known as Clovis points. According to the ruling theory, bands of big game hunters trekked out of Siberia sometime before 11,500 years ago. They crossed into Alaska when the floor of the Bering Strait...was a land bridge between continents, and found themselves in a trackless continent, the New World when it was truly new. The hunters, so the story went, moved south...and soon flourished on the Great Plains and in the Southwest..., their presence widely marked by distinctive stone projectile points first discovered near the town of Clovis, N.M. In less than 1,000, these Clovis people and their distinctive stone points made it all the way to the tip of South America. They were presumably the founding population of today's American Indians.

"Now a growing body of intriguing evidence is telling a much different story. From Alaska to Brazil and southern Chile, artifacts and skeleton are forcing archeologists to abandon Clovis orthodoxy and come to terms with a more complex picture of earliest American settlement. People may have arrived thousands to tens of thousand of years sooner, in many waves of migration and by a number of routes. Their ancestry many not have been only Asian. Some of the migrations may have originated in Australia or Europe. '...Clovis was not the only culture in America 11,000 years ago,' Dr. [Ronson] Bonnichsen, an archeologist at Oregon State University, said as he opened the conference. Two discoveries - the remains of a pre-Clovis camp at Monte Verde in Chile and the skull and bones of the Kennewick Man, possibly as old as 9,300 years and bearing little physical resemblance to later American Indians - are primarily responsible for the profound shift in thinking. Freed from the restrictive Clovis model, archeologists and other scholars have aired a wide assortment of alternative explanations for the initial occupation of America." Wilford goes on to report on some of these new theories, and to mention the legal case "pitting American Indians, who claim Kennewick Man as an ancestor and want his remains turned over to them for reburial, and anthropologists, who are seeking access to the skeleton for more detailed studies, including DNA tests of the man's genetic background." [Wilford deals with this issue in depth in a related story headlined "Archeology and Ancestry Clash Over Skeleton" printed on the same page as his story on the conference.] Wilford also mentions the skeleton of Luzia, " found in Brazil, [which] has prompted speculation of another origins theory." After reporting on several disagreements among the conference participants espousing differing theories, Wilford quotes Dr. Michael Collins of the University of Texas, who said, "'We're going to have to open our minds. We're going to have to explore some ideas that may not get us very far. We're going to have to be tolerant of each other as we explore these ideas. My God, this is an exciting time to be involved in research in the peopling of America and the earliest cultures of the Americas.' " 

And yet more on Clovis: a story in the November 15 issue of The New Yorker by Douglas Preston called "Woody's Dream" has the sub-headline "Nobody knew how the ancient Clovis hunters created their brilliant artifacts - except for one man, and nobody wanted to believe him."

Preston tells the story of the appearance of a group of spectacular Clovis points that were offered for sale to Forrest Fenn ("one of the world's foremost collectors of these artifacts...a neighbor and an old friend of mine"). In the early 1970s, Preston writes, "Fenn started the first major art gallery in Santa Fe, and he was the dealer who established Santa Fe as an international art market."

Preston's story recounts Fenn's attempt to have the points authenticated. Most of the experts he consulted believed the points to be, to quote one expert, "as good as gold." But Kenneth Tankersley, whose specialty at Kent State University is microscopic and chemical analysis of Paleo points, discovered that the points were not from the Clovis era after all. Fenn remembers when Tankersley called to break the news. "'I felt like the director of the Louvre when scientists tell him that the Mona Lisa is a fake...These were the Mona Lisa of points.' "

And when Fenn "began to wonder who might have faked them," Preston writes, "he didn't have to think long." The rest of the story is about Woody Blackwell, who has what Preston calls "encyclopedia knowledge of Clovis points," and about how Blackwell came to create his own extraordinary - and believable - examples.

Early Collecting Fever

by Patricia Fogelman Lange

The collection of cultural objects has been on-going in the Southwest since a market was established in the late nineteenth century. Collecting fever began among the outsiders (whether living in or visiting the Southwest) to commodify another culture's objects, and continues today among a diverse group of people. The following is a short story describing one such collector.

In the late 1800's, the Governor of the Territory of New Mexico, L. Bradford Prince, was no exception in his fascination with collecting. Between the mid-1880's to the early 1890's, Prince collected approximately 1650 stone objects, among other specimens. He and his wife acquired them with the assistance of Cleto Urina from Cochiti Pueblo who secretly manufactured these idols with the assistance of immediate family members. Eventually, Prince declared to the scientific world that these figures were excavated idols from Pueblo Indian ruins. Many figures were accompanied by a story as well.

Two figures from the Prince collection: left, from the Milwaukee Public Museum right, from the Smithsonian.

A lawyer and historian, Prince lectured on, wrote about, and exhibited his collection. The figures were carved from hard lava, soft tufa, granite, or marble in a variety of colors and forms. The sparseness of the features in some suggest great difficulty in working the stone. Varying in size from several inches to five feet high, some were shaped as birds and quadrupeds while the majority were human. Prince described his figures as being of three types: (1) cylindrical - these measured two to five and one-half feet high like a square post. The upper portion represented a head with eyes, nose, and mouth while the remainder of the body was usually decorated with diagonal lines. (2) long oval - the upper portion represented the head while some had arms resting on the body in three or four different positions and legs. (3) head only - each head ranged from three to four inches in diameter to larger than a human head. Some figures had elaborate features and expressions while others had flat faces or were globular.

By 1900, the market value for the Prince collection was estimated at $50,000. Prince was interested in selling but the impact of this genre of manufactured idols on the archaeological community who at first believed them to be authentic and later fake was enormous. Many notable experts of the time such as F. W. Hodge, Frederick Starr, J.P. Harrington, and Later, E. L. Hewett declared them to be of no scientific value based on their volume, lack of provenance data, recent vintage, metal tool marks, and additionally because they did not agree in technique and style with similar carvings excavated in New Mexico ruins by qualified archaeologists. When word of the "fake" idols spread, it is rumored that a humiliated Prince disposed of a considerable portion of them in the well in the patio at the Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe. A number were subsequently unearthed when the well was excavated.

Presently, a substantial number of these images are in collections of public institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the largest number at the Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe.

According to the Linguist John P. Harrington, members of Cochiti Pueblo were well aware of this escapade and thought that the manufacture and sale of these idols was the biggest joke ever perpetuated upon an Anglo. In an unpublished paper, Harrington (n. d.) wrote:

"The story of the manufacture of the objects is a matter of common gossip among the Indians of Cochiti and among Mexicans living in the vicinity of that pueblo and at Agua Fria, a hamlet situated between Cochiti and Santa Fe. These gossipers consider "Idols" too dignified a term to bestow upon the fake images, and commonly dub them "monos" , meaning in Spanish 'monkeys'."

Even today, the fascination with collecting has its risks due to problems in authenticity so that "real" objects are placed in a market to compete with visually similar objects deemed "fakes" . As the old expression suggests "buyer beware".

Bibliography: Harrington, John P. n. d. "The 'Stone idols' of Cochiti, A Remarkable Archaeological Forgery". Unpublished, Laboratory of Anthropology Archives 89ELH.080. Smithsonian  

Summer Vol. 7 No. 3 

Items for Sale

and the

Migratory Bird Act

In August, 2000, there was concern expressed that the Fish & Game was going to be present at the Whitehawk show. Speculation as to what items would be subject to confiscation ran amuck. Hopefully, the following discussion will answer some questions but most likely will give rise to others.

Since there are over 700 species of birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it will be easier if we concentrate on those birds not covered by the act. Feathers from ground dwelling, non-migrating birds such as pheasants, quail, turkey, chickens and some grouse such as spruce and sage are legal. Game birds that are raised domestically such as quail, geese, turkey and some ducks are legal to own and sell. These birds must be marked or tagged for identification purposes. However, game birds such as mallard ducks, if legally obtained from the wild, can be shot, eaten or mounted by the owner, but cannot be sold under any circumstances. Specifically, Pomo baskets adorned with mallard feathers cannot be sold under federal law. However, if the Pomo basket is adorned with quail top notch feathers, it is legal to sell under federal law. Keep in mind that the federal law acts as an umbrella under which individual states must comply. The states can make the federal law more restrictive. For example, in New Mexico the use of quail feathers to adorn a basket is legal. However, it is possible that California, which has stricter laws, would prohibit such use. The laws of each state where a show occurs should be researched prior to exhibiting such items. The federal government has designated certain birds as endangered and protected by the act. Individual states may have designated even more birds as endangered, thus increasing the number of protected birds. Contact the game warden of the Fish and Game State agency in the state where a show is being held for exact information. Be aware that when a bird is taken off the endangered list, it is still covered by the act until specifically exempted by law. All migratory birds are protected by the act. A list of all protected birds can be provided.

When we make the decision to sell items with feathers on it, the court places the responsibility on us of investigating the federal and the different state laws to insure we are not in violation of any law.

This information was provided by Kenny Kessler of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Albuquerque. If there are other questions that you want to discuss, please contact me.

Robert V. Gallegos

Unidroit Ratified

by Patty Gerstenblith

The Unidroit Convention on International Return of Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects goes into effect this month in the first five countries to ratify it. Like the 1970 UNESCO convention, it provides the means for a nation to recover stolen or illegally exported cultural property, including excavation with antiquities. Unlike the 1970 convention, however, Unidroit specifically equates illegal excavation with theft, giving source countries a basis for recovering illegally excavated objects under existing stolen property law.

Unidroit establishes definitive time periods within which claims for recovery of stolen items must be brought, overriding existing statutes of limitation, which vary from country to country. It also requires purchasers of stolen items to return them whether or not they acted in good faith. Original owners must compensate good-faith buyers, a concession to civil law countries, like Switzerland and France, where buyers who have acted in good faith can acquire title to stolen objects. While the convention should make it easier to recover material that turns up in civil-law countries, it may have the opposite effect in common-law countries, like the U.S. and England, where even good-faith purchasers cannot acquire title to stolen property. Requiring payment of compensation may also make it harder for poor countries to recover expensive items.

Under Unidroit, to qualify for good-faith compensation, possessors must do more than claim they did not know an object was stolen they must also prove they "exercised due diligence" when acquiring it. In deciding whether someone exercised due diligence, "regard shall be had to all circumstances of the acquisition, including the character of the parties" and what steps were taken to determine whether the object was stolen. This provision places the burden of proving good faith on the purchaser. Considering the character of the parties should help in cases where unprovenanced antiquities are purchased from dealers known on other occasions to have dealt in looted antiquities.

Unidroit was originally seen as an alternative to the UNESCO convention, which had not been signed by a number of major art-importing countries, including Japan and many European nations. The text was finalized in Rome on June 24, 1998. So far, Romania, Lithuania, Paraguay, China, and Ecuador have ratified the convention. Eighteen other nations have signed of these, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Hungary, and Ireland are working toward ratification.

Although the U.S. played an active role in writing Unidroit, it has not signed the convention. While the text was being drafted, a large consortium of American museums and art dealers filed a brief with the U.S. delegation asking the U.S. not to sign the convention and to withdraw the provision defining illegal excavation as theft. On the latter score the effort failed, but opposition from the museums, dealers, and collectors helped to ensure that the U.S. would not sign. Because the U.S. is part of the UNESCO convention, however, adopting Unidroit has not seemed as urgent.

Excerpt from Archaeology, July/August, 1995

Cultural Consensus:

Object ID Aims To Stem Flow Of Stolen Art, Antiquities

Good documentation is crucial to the fight against the illicit trade in cultural property, which is now widely recognized as one of the most prevalent types of international crime. Law-enforcement agencies can rarely recover and return objects that have not been photographed and adequately described. Object ID, conceived by the California's Getty Information Institute, may be the long-awaited answer to the problem. In 1993, the GII, which fosters communication among members of the cultural heritage community, initiated a project to develop international documentation standards for identifying art and antiques.

The new standard has been created in collaboration with law-enforcement agencies, museums, the art trade, appraisers, and the insurance industry. The standards were crafted through a combination of background research, interviews, and, most importantly, by questionnaires sent out internationally. In total, over 1,000 responses were received from organizations in 84 countries. The findings of these surveys demonstrated that there was close agreement on the information needed to describe and identify cultural objects. The result is called the Object ID checklist.

Around the world there is growing, broad-based support for the new standards. Since its launch in May 1997, The Object ID checklist has been translated into eleven languages. In August 1997, the executive leadership of the International Council of Museums adopted a resolution stating that "a museum should be able to generate from its collection information system such data (preferably according to the 'Object ID' standard) that can identify an object in case of theft or looting. In the United States, the FBI has adopted Object ID for its National Stolen Art File, and in the United Kingdom, Scotland Yard is using it to compile art theft reports.

For more information, contact PCO, Getty Information Institute, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA, 90049-1681, or visit http:// www.gii.getty.edu.

Reprint from "Common Ground" Spring 1998

Letter to Ramona Morris from Zuni Tribal Council

November 30, 1990

Dear Mrs. Morris:

Our consulting anthropologist, T. J. Ferguson, has told me about his conversation with you, and your intention to return the War God in your possession to the shrine it belongs at on the Zuni Reservation. We understand this War God was at one time in the collection of Frederick J. Dockstader.

On behalf of the Zuni people, the Zuni Tribal Council would like to express our sincere gratitude and thankfulness for the kindness you are showing in returning our War God to us.

We have asked Mr. T. J. Ferguson to arrange a convenient time with you to present the War God to the Zuni Bow Priest in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This will have to be after Shalako and our winter solstice ceremonies in early January. We have also asked Mr. Ferguson to send you an article about the War Gods that recently appeared in "Native Peoples" for your information.

We know how much the War God means to you, and appreciate the good care you have provided him through the years. We want to assure you that returning the War God to his shrine will result in good things for you, the Zuni people, and our world.

We look forward to meeting you early next year.

Sincerely,

Barton Martza, Head Councilman

Pueblo of Zuni

 

Response from Ramona Morris

I have a great admiration for the Zuni. They are a very conservative people who have continued to practice their religion in the face of encroaching Western society. This is not a revival. It is an unbroken line from pre-contact times. It is my own belief, and the policy of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association, of which I am a member, that objects accorded reverence by functioning religious communities should receive protection from commercial exploitation. I am voluntarily releasing this Ahayu:da to the Zuni because of their concern for the missing images. At present all such images are being or have been returned from public museums because of government policy. They have not acted against private collections, to my knowledge, in the case where ownership has been established for a number of years.

This image has been, I believe the legal term is "open and notorious" , since its publication in a well known book in 1961. The legality of ownership has never been questioned, and if it were going to be so, the time to do this would have been thirty years ago, not now. I had originally hoped the Ahayu:da would end up in a major museum to be saved for future generations but present museum policy is repatriation, and doesn't show any obvious sign of change.

I feel strongly that we all share a common cultural heritage - that the great works of any portion of mankind belong to all mankind. This is the reason for the mandate of museums - to preserve and make available for study the contributions of every society, for the enrichment of our present and future generations. It worries me that the only place one can find certain great works of art of this type are in museums outside the United States.

My gift may not be altogether altruistic. The Ahayu:da are meant to help control earthquake and war. At this time, I live directly uphill from the San Andreas Fault, and have two teenage sons... Our home is between San Francisco and the epicenter of last year's Loma Prieta earthquake. The only damage we sustained was a single broken toy. Who can say whether one religion is more valid than another, or whether they are not all equal reflections of mankind's yearning for understanding. Perhaps this is my way of saying "thank you" to the Zuni for their part in the search. As for the image - no one owns anything forever - we are all just caretakers here.

Ramona Morris, ms. 1990.

Indonesian "Red Ship" Textiles

by Thomas Murray

copyright 1992 by ATADA

The textile tradition of Indonesia is both prolific and diverse. Each island supports at least one ethnically distinct population, termed "tribe" , often made up of autonomous bands. Larger islands are frequently home to dozens of such groups, all of whom identify themselves through textiles specific to their community. Cloth extends from costume to ritual "tokens of empowerment" , used in gift exchange, rites of passage, funeral ceremonies, and as wall hangings, statements of prestige and authority.

The creating and use of ceremonial textiles is profoundly regulated by customary law, adat. Taboos govern the planting of cotton seeds, the harvest, the carding and spinning of yarn, the gathering of dye stuffs, the knotting of ikat, the preparation of the back strap loom, indeed, the final cutting of the fringe, all work of women. Adherence to constraints in motif, color sequence, dimension and applied weaving techniques, as demanded by hovering ancestor spirits (quite ready to punish transgressors), assured a conservative, archaic textile lineage. It is possible to perceive iconographic references within Indonesian textiles from all periods of mainland cultural influence ancient Chinese and Vietnamese Bronze Age (1000BC to 200AD), Hindu/Buddhist themes arising from Indian colonization (6th to 14th century), Sung and Ming trade (11th to 17th century), Islam (13th century to present), and European colonial (16th to mid 20th century). all of these grafted onto a pre-existing Neolithic culture, featuring the erection of massive stone monuments.

The textiles of the Lampung District, Southern Sumatra, present ritual cloth of the first order. Initiation sarongs (a costume) called tapis, and so called "ship cloths" , tampan and palepai (supplementary weft panels of 1 meter square by 3 meters by 65 cm, respectively) display a boat motif recalling a means of early migration. Such boats are found as decoration on the sacred Dongson ritual drums dispersed through Indonesia 2000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Of these cloths, it is the palepai that carried the greatest prestige. Only a man of noble birth, who had provided multiple "feasts of merit" for his community (often to the point of near bankruptcy, akin to the Pacific North West potlatch) might "attain a rank" , permitting him to sit upon an elevated "seat of merit" (papadon) and extend a palepai on the wall behind. Research conducted by Mattiebelle Gittinger of the Textile Museum, for her Ph.D. thesis (1972), indicates a critical distinction between the "double red ship" and the "single blue ship" palepai variants. She suggests the blue boat served for secular roles of the headman (available at a lesser level of initiation, and therefore more frequently encountered), whereas the red was restricted to religious, priestly functions, a far rarer personage. The red ship's arching bow and stern, was further interpreted to serve as a motif  "double entendre", i.e., that of a bird with wings spread. Ancestors, pavilions, elephants, peacocks, parasols, all refer to royal authority. This style, from Kalinda Bay, is considered by locals to be the seminal icon of Lampung culture, from which all else flows. One senses a continuum of megalithic, bronze age and Javanese court influence present in double red ship palepai.

Plains Pectorals

by Ramona Morris

The origin of the design of Plains pectoral ornaments is not well understood. I believe I have identified the source of inspiration for these beautiful and rare objects. Men of the Plains tribes did not prefer the trade silver gorgets found over much of Eastern North America. Instead, an unusual pendant of striking shape, known as a pectoral, was worn mainly by the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Teton Sioux, and Shoshone. It was made primarily of German silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper. The pendant is generally in the shape of a cloud, with a rounded upper edge and scalloped base. The form of the pectoral is usually convex. Some examples have engraved designs on either the outer, or, more rarely, the inner surface. Both rocker engraving and plain line engraving were used. One example collected from the Tetons at Poplar River, Montana, now in the Smithsonian's Anthropology collection, has four human heads engraved on it and a cutout of a human figure hanging from the center of the base. Another example in a private collection has a Maltese cross and the floor plan of a lodge engraved on the inner surface.

The ornament was hung from a metal loop curved back from the face of the top edge. Occasionally there are suspension holes. The pectorals often had additions hanging from them. As mentioned above, one unique example had a human figure. More usually, crescents were hung from the corners, or center of the base of the pendant. An example of this type, collected from the Shoshone in Wyoming, is in the collection of the Denver Art Museum. Alternatively, chains ending in little balls would hang from each of the scallops. The Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron, Nebraska, has an example in their collection.

Very little has been said concerning the origin of this unusual ornament. One author, Rosemary Ellison, felt they were made by itinerant Mexican silversmiths. Richard Conn writes that Plains metalworking was introduced by displaced eastern Indians moving into the region and by traders who brought ornaments. No-one seems to discuss the origin of the design.

I believe they were adaptations of the sword hangers of the Revolutionary war period, used by both officers and civilians to secure the scabbard to the belt by means of a hook that fit over the belt. The scalloped shape with curving top is almost identical to the pectoral. Further, chains hung from the extremities to attach the scabbard. Examples of sword hangers of this type can be seen in Neumann and Kravic's Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 35, no.8. The belt hook was simply reduced and curled even more to form a loop. More and smaller chains were added for their decorative effect. This would not be the first time an object of military adornment was adapted for use by Native Americans. The series of engraved and multiple gorgets found all over the East is a prime example. Bandolier bags of the Great Lakes were an adaptation of the shot pouch. The Iroquois bonnet was a direct copy of the Glengarry worn by Scottish Highlanders.

If any of our subscribers or readers have other ideas about this, I would be glad to hear them.

The Puname Inception

by Francis H. Harlow

copyright 1997 by ATADA

Today, I sit quietly on a shelf in a museum, along with others like myself who are called Puname Polychrome. It's a special anniversary for me. Exactly three hundred years of history have passed since I was constructed by loving hands at Zia Pueblo. They built me of coarse red clay tempered with tiny flecks of crushed rock to make me strong. They dressed me with a fine smooth slip, and used pigments from the earth to paint the sacred designs on my body. And I served them well, carrying water from the stream up to the tiny village on top of the lava-covered mesa where we all were recovering from the agony of fierce battles and the tragic loss of our ancestors. Before I was born, our people had revolted against the foreign settlers and driven them out. But they were not to be defeated, returning over and over again to engage us in fierce struggles for reconquest. We lived for a while in the hills with our neighbors from Jemez Pueblo and others from near the Great River who sought refuge from the turmoil. But there was no escape. The foreign settlers returned and had become thoroughly entrenched by the time I was born.

Puname Polychrome Pottery

I'm a transitional piece of pottery, wearing with pride many features of earlier styles but also leading the way to a new generation of Puname Polychrome siblings. During the three or four decades before I was born, my ancestors had more concave surfaces for their upper bodies, and their rims flared outwards much more strongly than mine. The Puname jars coming after me have convex upper bodies and only the slightest flaring of their rims. Look at me: I'm right in between.

Look also at the slip I'm wearing. Before my time most of the jars were naked, exposing only the basic clay from which they were built. I'm among the first of the new-age generation to wear the fine slip that helped make Zia potters famous for centuries to come, And there are other features that bind me securely to the proud traditions of my ancestors. Around the middle of my body are zigzag lines with triangle-bedecked endings like those that persisted for centuries on Zia pottery. A few years later this band of design changed to a series of arcs.

But notice especially the strange figures within the square pattern on my upper body. Modern people call these "shaft feathers." This little figure was of great significance to the Zia people of the 1600s nothing quite like it has ever been depicted elsewhere. I've sketched a few examples from a couple of decades before I was born. Yes, they're a bit like the split feathers painted on vessels from many of our neighbor villages, but the shaft feathers are not quite the same, because the two elements are not separated and one of them is clearly a shaft, not a feather. It's quite likely that I'm the last Zia jar to bear this emblem.

Oh, I should mention another feature that ties me to the past. There are two sets of lines that pass almost completely around my body, one just below the rim and one just above the middle. These are black-edged-red path lines, which occur on numerous of my ancestors made at most of the Pueblos for centuries before I was born. At one spot not seen in the picture, each path line is broken by a little gap, with a bar across the ends in traditional fashion. Within a few years after I was made, the red was thereafter always omitted on my Puname Polychrome siblings, and never was incorporated again on any of the Pueblo pottery styles at Zia or elsewhere.

One other interesting thing about the designs I bear is seen in the pigment for the black paint. Until the great revolt against the foreigners in 1680, the Zia potters used lead oxide to make a glaze paint for the designs. After about 1710 they used a finely-ground mineral as the base for the paint. In the interim, however, neither material was used. Instead the Zia potters borrowed an idea from their Jemez neighbors, and manufactured a pigment that soaks into the surface and chars during firing. I'm one of the few surviving Zia pots that shows this very different appearance for my black paints.

  What adventures have I had since the date of my birth, three hundred years ago? The foreign reconquest was intolerable to many of the people from Zia and other villages. In despair they abandoned their homes and moved far to the northwest to join with Navajo people to attempt to make a new life for themselves. I was carried along on the trek, and for reasons I don't understand was abandoned one day in a small rocky cave far from home. And there I lay on my side for over two centuries until retrieved by gentle hands and moved to this museum shelf to sit amongst my brothers and sisters for all to see and feel the history that we proudly signify.

Francis H. Harlow

October, 1997

The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo

by Francis H. Harlow

Pottery from Santa Ana Pueblo receives little attention in most books about Native American art. The reasons are not hard to find. Overshadowed by the beautiful ceramics of nearby Zia Pueblo, the Santa Ana vessels often seem quite plain in comparison. Indeed, with almost no market for their pottery, the craft at Santa Ana nearly died out during this century, and was saved only through the revival initiated by Eudora Montoya.

Also, Santa Ana pottery seems to have no roots. No vessel dating before about 1770 have been credibly attributed to Santa Ana. Did the craft suddenly appear at that date? Surely the answer is no. Most likely the earlier Santa Ana pottery is simply indistinguishable from that of Zia. Both Pueblos had access to the same red firing clay and to the black lava rocks that were so laboriously crushed for tempering material. Both were steeped in the same traditions of vessel forms and designs. Indeed, when the first tell-tale clues appeared for differentiation of vessels from the two villages, the overall appearance of their pottery was still nearly identical.

But something happened in the late 1700's. Many of the Santa Ana residents moved from their traditional Pueblo homes to richer farm lands by the Rio Grande, and founded a new village called Ranchitos. Two factors of this move profoundly affected their ceramics they were further away from the influence of Zia and they started using new materials for the construction of their pottery.

Taking guidance from San Felipe and Isleta, the Santa Ana potters started using fine river-worn sand to temper their clay. Seen from a distance, the vessels still looked very much like Zia pots of that same era. At Zia the pottery type, known as San Pablo Polychrome, was richly ornate, with a formal design layout for jars consisting of alternating wide and narrow panels filled with feather symbols, "key" figures with eyes, and arcs embellished by stair-step decorations. The jar shape was globular, with a short neck devoid of decorations. The Santa Ana jars copied these features so faithfully as to be indistinguishable. Under close examination, however, the difference in clay is so great that identification of origin can be made without doubt. The Santa Ana pottery, called Ranchitos Polychrome, has a clay body that contains abundant fine, smooth grains of sand, but none of the crushed black rock that characterizes all Zia pottery from 1300 to the present.

Thus there is little doubt that the history of Santa Ana pottery is virtually identical to that of Zia through the prehistoric glaze-ware periods, the early-historic transitions from glaze-decorated pottery to matte-paint wares, and the recovery period (from the Pueblo revolt) during the first half of the 1700's. As further data and improved analysis techniques emerge, we can expect to see some early differences resulting from the geographic effects from interactions with both of those Pueblos. Santa Ana is closer to the Rio Grande Pueblos, and likely felt more strongly those influences, perhaps especially in vessel form during the glaze-ware evolution of bowl rim styles during the 1400's and 1500's. Both Zia and Santa Ana lie at the southern edge of the Pajarito Plateau and appear to show equally the glaze-on-red traditions that were especially strong during 1480 - 1600 when Yunque Polychrome and Pajarito Glaze-on-red were the dominant glaze-ware styles. But Santa Ana may have departed more strongly than Zia from the traditions of red design backgrounds as a result of the nearby dominance of light-colored slips at the Rio Grande villages to the east.

Figure 1, a jar of Tsankawi Black-on-cream

Glaze-decorated pottery continued to be made at both Santa Ana and Zia for most of the 1600's. Profound influences in style, especially jar forms, were felt from the more northern parts of the Pajarito Plateau, where Tsankawi Black-on-cream jars evolved in the 1500's to a dramatic new form with concave base, flaring underbody, midbody bulge, tall upper body, and slightly flaring rim, as shown in Fig 1. The idea spread south among the Rio Grande Pueblos, reaching Santa Ana and Zia in the early 1600's. By the time of the Pueblo revolt in 1680, this new jar form had evolved into one of the sculptural triumphs of Pueblo Indian pottery. Figure 2 illustrates an especially handsome example from Zia (or perhaps Santa Ana.)

Figure 2, a jar of San Diego Polychrome from Zia or Santa Ana

But, as the figure shows, the glaze-paint material was no longer available with the high quality of previous centuries. It varied from frustratingly runny during firing to a gritty texture that fired to a dusty grey color, as on this example. Indeed, shortly later the use of glaze paint was abandoned forever. For a brief period, 1680 - 1710, the potters at Zia and Santa Ana borrowed a paint-material idea from Jemez Pueblo, producing an organic soaked-in appearance for the black design lines. After 1710 both Santa Ana and Zia have used a matte pigment made of finely powdered minerals in an organic binder, giving a dark brownish color after firing.

Figure 3, a jar of Santa Ana Polychrome, circa 1810

After Santa Ana moved to Ranchitos, there was a gradual stylistic divergence from the pottery of Zia. By 1800 the vessel designs were so different that a Santa Ana (Ranchitos) origin can be discerned even at a glance. Figure 3 illustrates the incorporation of design elements that show roots in the earlier decorations, but now have a bold structure that is in striking contrast with the patterns from any other Pueblo. Santa Ana had at last found a unique ceramic style of its own.

(Francis H. Harlow is also known as Frank Harlow).

THE BOWL AND ITS STORY LIVES ON

by Francis H. Harlow

October 1996

In the lonesome countryside of northwest New Mexico the landscape varies from rugged in some places to gently rolling in others. Harsh storms have eroded arroyos and canyons, and sometimes the sun burns fiercely for weeks at a time. Only the hardiest vegetation and animals can survive.

For centuries there was another survivor, an ancient hand-made pottery bowl. Exposed to the elements, it sat patiently within a roughly circular array of boulders on the west side of a little canyon. All around where it sat, the dirt gradually eroded away, leaving the bowl perched on top of a little mound.

Zia bowl found in northwest New Mexico.

This is no ordinary bowl it has a poignant story to tell. In appearance it is a handsome vessel, gently rounded over the lower two-thirds of its surface and abruptly curved inward for the upper third. The rim of the bowl was deliberately thickened by the skillful hands that fashioned it. Inside, the surface was smoothed by a stone while the clay was still soft. The underpart of the exterior is polished red while above the angular shoulder there lies a band of black and red decorations painted onto the smooth clay. The only blemish is a hole in the bottom, made by a sharp impact from the outside. This ancient bowl was constructed in the finest tradition of Pueblo Indian pottery making, but it was found very far from the village where it was made. The facts associated with its discovery are well known but the history of how it got there can only be pieced together from tantalizing clews.

In October, 1963, Dr. Keith Ziegler and several companions went hunting for deer in this area. Whether they were successful in that quest is not recorded, but when Keith returned to Los Alamos he mentioned to me, almost in passing, that something unusual had been found. Stopping to rest for a minute by some large boulders, he had noticed a strange mound of dirt with something perched on top. Moving closer, he saw that it was not just a rock. He considered leaving it there it would have been yet one more thing to carry. Besides, as he later confessed, it didn't really seem very interesting. Nevertheless he lifted the bowl from its centuries- old resting place, tucked it into his already overstuffed knapsack, and thereby opened a new chapter for this precious and ancient artifact.

What about the earlier chapters in the history of this bowl, and of the people who had made and use it? The bowl itself speaks eloquently in this regard.

First, the style of form and decorations fit perfectly into the known traditions of Pueblo Indian pottery. Anthropologists have long recognized a vessel form called "shoulder bowl," which has numerous slight variations associated with stages in development of the idea. Characteristic features include the angular bend of the surface and the lack of interior decorations. To me the vessel looks like the lower parts of a jar that has no neck.

Second, the materials that went into its construction tell us with little doubt where it was made. The brick red clay was tempered with abundant tiny pieces of crushed black rock, a tradition that has been followed at Zia Pueblo for seven centuries, and only in villages close to Zia since well before this bowl was made. As told to me by the famous Zia potter, Mrs. Vicentita Pino, it would be unthinkable to make pottery at Zia without inclusion of the black rock (basalt's) on which the village is built, despite the painstaking labor required to crush the hard material into fine grains. It must be conceded, however, that while this evidence for a Zia origin is strong, there exists an intriguing alternative. Nearby Santa Ana Pueblo may have used crushed basalt's in their pottery until about 1760 it has defied our best efforts to determine if this was the case.

Third, the dark lines in the designs were painted with a mineral (lead oxide) that fused during the firing of the bowl into a true glaze. Thus we conclude with confidence that the bowl was made before 1700, the end of the Pueblo Indian glaze-ware period.

But the bowl retains for now some secrets:

When exactly was it made? The Zia Pueblo pottery history before 1700 is still somewhat clouded in mystery. There is no doubt that shouldered bowls were made at Zia, but the surviving examples are extremely rare, even as fragments. Comparing this bowl with the more abundant examples from along the Rio Grande and the Pajarito Plateau, I am inclined to think that a date of circa 1600 or later is likely. The design style tends to confirm this conclusion, perhaps indicating a middle 1600's origin.

How, exactly, did the bowl make its way from Zia to the circle of boulders several hundred miles to the northwest? Dr. A. E. Dittirt, Jr. supplies a plausible conjecture. In 1680 the Pueblo Indians revolted against the Spanish, who had settled in the area 82 years earlier. In 1692, under the command of de Vargas, the Spanish returned, paving the way for full re-occupancy in 1694. It was a time of great upheaval, with many Pueblos being partially or completely abandoned. The residents fled in many directions, some to the Hopi villages far to the west, some to remote sites in the rugged Pajarito Plateau, and some to join the Navajo Indians far to the northwest. Dittirt imagines a distraught Zia family, carrying only their most prized possessions including this venerable bowl, making the long journey to take up residence with their former enemies, the Navajo. Along the way there was some or another tragic occurrence in which the bowl was either dropped or perhaps knocked against a boulder, thereby incurring a hole that is 2cm by 4cm in size. With unmendable damage, the bowl had to be abandoned, and a natural, rough circle of boulders was chosen for its resting place.

Eventually, around 1750, the last of the Pueblo Indians returned to what was left of their villages and re-established much of their traditional ways of life. Zia continued to produce superb pottery, much of it for trade to nearby Jemez Pueblo where the soil is moist and fertile and supports the production of food that is much harder to grow in the harsh surrounding of Zia. The potter who made this beautiful bowl so many centuries ago left a legacy of skill and artistry that persists even to this day in the beautiful vessels that are still made at Zia Pueblo.

(Francis H. Harlow is also known as Frank Harlow).

Turmoil in Troublous Times

by Francis H. Harlow

January 1998

Some ancient civilizations recorded their history in writing. Others carried the records of restless adventures by word of mouth, from each generation to the next. In the absence of a written language, however, the most accurate clues to ancient happenings lie in the artifacts left behind: architectural features, tools, and especially pottery.

Seemingly fragile, pottery fragments are actually among the most enduring of the clues. Their value is especially enhanced in the southwestern Pueblo world by easily recognized differences in materials and style, which vary with remarkable consistency from one village area to another and from one generation to the next. From pottery fragments we have learned much, for example, about what happened to the Pueblo Indians as a consequence of the revolt against the Spanish in 1680, the reconquest in 1692, and the subsequent migrations of refugees.

The period was one of great turmoil and tragedy. Recorded history tells what happened from the Spanish point of view: bloody battles, endless sieges, futile attempts to regain the Indians' allegiance to the foreign rulers and to regain their Christian souls. The Pueblo Indians tried their best to resist, often abandoning centuries-old villages and fleeing to refugee sites among the canyons and mesas of the rugged Pajarito Plateau. Some of them went even farther to escape the Spanish domination, traveling far to the northwest to join their former enemies, the Navajo, in sites along the San Juan River. A group of Tewa Indians even journeyed to the Hopi Indian villages far to the west, founded the villages of Hano, and have remained there to the present time.

How do we know which Indians went where, and how long they stayed? The answer lies in examining the fragments of their pottery, carried on the long treks and abandoned as the vessels got broken from hard use. Or, in many remarkable circumstances, through the discovery of beautifully preserved whole bowls or jars that had been lovingly hidden in isolated caves far from the homelands where they were made.

Thus we know that shortly after the reconquest, many of the Jemez Indians were among the first to join the Navajo at San Juan River sites, where the distinctive Jemez style of pottery is especially pottery characteristics of the Tewa Pueblos and of the eastern Keres villages of Santo Domingo and Cochiti and the evidence indicates the presence of refugees from the Zuni villages and even the Hopi Pueblos. learners, and quickly absorbed into their culture the Pueblo skills of pottery making, loom weaving, and various architectural techniques.

By 1720, the proportions of refugees shifted and the dominant sites were about 20 miles to the south, especially in Gobernador Canyon. Jemez pottery became quite rare, and the Zuni type called Ashiivi Polychrome was the dominate intrusive type. Zia pottery (Puname Polychrome) was also more common. The clues are tantalizing. Had the Jemez Indians returned to their traditional home, or had they simply been absorbed into the Navajo society? Why was there apparently a large influx of Zuni and Zia people at that time?

Archaeological evidence suggests that through 1750-1800, the Gobernador district was gradually abandoned. By then the Pueblo refugees had been so absorbed into the Navajo culture that it is doubtful that any of them ever returned to their former Pueblo homes.

While many of the Pueblo Indians migrated to Navajo sites after the reconquest, others fled in different directions. The residents of Santa Clara and Picuris Pueblos moved to El Quartelejo an Kansas. Keres Indians from several Pueblos formed a new village, called Laguna, which is situated some miles west of Albuquerque. Their pottery of the early eighteenth century furnishes clues regarding the original homes of the residents, being very similar to the Ako Polychrome pots from Acoma, and showing somewhat later many design features like those of Santa Ana.

Who made this Gobernador Polychrome jar?

But not enough pottery could be carried to those sites, and soon a local style, called Gobernador Polychrome, was developed. The figure shows an example of this pottery type, a jar discovered in a cave in that area. The jar is thin-walled and light in weight, but very strong. The slip on the upper body is pinkish-tan color, and the design pigments are dusty mineral black and earthy rust red. In materials it shows its local origin, but in the decoration are strong influences from the homeland Pueblos: the designs have many Jemez features, and the red band below the design area is thoroughly characteristic of the Tewa and Keres traditions from the villages along the Rio Grande. Who made this fine jar? A Pueblo Indian refugee? A Navajo craftsman? The latter is quite possible as the Navajo were fast.

After the turmoil of the reconquest, did any of the refugees ever actually return to their Pueblo homes? In many cases, the answer is yes. From the Pajarito refugee sites, many returned within a few years to Jemez, Zia, Santa Ana, Santo Domingo, Cochiti, San Ildefonso, Tesuque and Santa Clara. The large village of Cuyamungue, however, has remained empty since 1694. Newly established villages like Hano and Laguna are still actively populated by descendents of their founders. Those Pueblo residents who stayed away longer than a few years became absorbed into other cultures (Navajo, Apache, and perhaps Ute and Comanche), teaching them many new skills, and losing their former identities except through legends told from each generation to the next on cold winter evenings.

(Francis H. Harlow is also known as Frank Harlow).

A Strange Intruder

by Francis H. Harlow

January 1998

From the tip of the mesa east of Los Alamos, I look across a broad valley edged with sheer cliffs.

The rocks that form the cliffs were blasted into the atmosphere as volcanic ash a million years ago, consolidating into a wide apron around the second largest volcanic caldera in the world. Slowly this apron of solidified ash has eroded, leaving long flat-topped mesas separated by deeply carved valleys.

The whole structure is called the Pajarito Plateau.

The floor of the valley below the mesa tip is covered with a fine stand of pine and juniper trees, and a small stream meanders through the gently rolling contours. The soft rocks of the nearly vertical cliffs have been sculpted by wind and rain into random pockets along the tops of the talus slopes many of these pockets have been enlarged by ancient humans into flat-bottom caves, which became the back rooms of their cliff dwellings. In the middle of the valley on a low, broad ridge is a barren spot, perhaps ten acres in area. This was the Pueblo Indian village of P'otsuwi'i, often called Otowi by modern residents of the nearby cities.

P'otsuwi'i is one of the five large village sites found on the Pajarito Plateau dating from before the fifteenth century until abandonment in about 1580. The most southern, Tyonyi, was a Keres-speaking Pueblo, whose descendants now live in the modern village of Cochiti. The other four were Tewa-speaking. In each case, the residents were plagued with decreasing supplies of water through the sixteenth century, and, growing weary of long treks to the Rio Grande, finally departed from their ancient homes to live with cousins in Pueblos much closer to the river.

Scattered about each of the villages are countless fragments of the pottery that was made throughout their occupancy in a sequence of styles very typical of the Tewa and Keres traditions. But at P'otsuwi'i there is also a strange intrusive style, very different in appearance from virtually any other found in the ancient southwestern United States. In particular the designs on the vessels are executed by incising, rather than painting. In addition, the incised lines were often filled with fine micaceous glitter.

Maverick P'otsuwi'i jar.

This maverick style appeared at P'otsuwi'i in the middle fifteenth century, and also occurs as a minor ceramics component at the other Tewa Pueblos in the area. The forms were almost exclusively jars, made in the standard configuration of fifteenth century Tewa jars, except for the innovative addition of a concave base for carrying on the head. Bowls with incised decoration are quite rare. Even more so is a form that is unique to the Pueblo world. I know of only three or four surviving examples, of which one that is completely whole is illustrated in the figure. For want of a better descriptive term, this pottery vessel might be called a canteen. Standard Pueblo Indian canteens are more-or-less oval in form, with a pair of opposed small handles and a single spout between them. This incised canteen has a single handle with a spout at one end, and is closed on the flat bottom and slightly domed top. The incised decorations form zigzag patterns in two rows around the circumference.

The type name for this fifteenth century style is P'otsuwi'i incised. We didn't know for sure if the idea is an indigenous invention, but there is circumstantial evidence for its intrusion along with a group of wanderers arriving circa 1450 from the lower Mississippi River region. The pottery made there during the Temple Mound Period (1300 - 1700) show extensive use of incised decorations resembling those of this canteen, although the forms are mostly quite different from those of P'otsuwi'i incised. The Cole Creek culture (Temple Mound Period I, 1300 - 1500) extended somewhat into Texas and Arkansas, and it is plausible that wanderers to the west did indeed end up at the Rio Grande.

However the style arose, it had at least one profound influence on Pueblo pottery. The concave base was heartily accepted as the standard configuration for jars, spreading across the entire Pueblo world: to Sankarvi black-on-cream in the Tewa area (1550), to Kotyiti polychrome from the eastern Keres Pueblos (1600), to San Diego polychrome at Zia (1630), and on to Ako polychrome at Acoma (1700) and Ashiwi polychrome at Zuni (1700). The idea even caught favor in the Hopi villages (Payupki polychrome in the early eighteenth century) although by circa 1750, the Hopi Indians returned to their earlier convex or flattened bases for jars.

The idea of incised decorations, however, was not very popular and by the early sixteenth century the technique was abandoned, having never spread beyond the Tewa area. In about 1930, the style was revived at San Juan Pueblo, where Mrs. Regina Cata copied incised patterns from ancient fragments of P'otsuwi'i incised. Other potters from San Juan have continued the style, combining surface areas with stone polished red slip and unslipped areas with incised designs filled with golden micaceous glitter, to create a handsome style that is made up to the present time.

(Francis H. Harlow is also known as Frank Harlow).

The Navajo Child's Serape

By Christopher Selser

Between the 9th and 13th centuries, groups of Athabascan-speaking peoples arrived in what we now call the Southwestern United States. Impressed with the lifestyle of the Pueblo culture they encountered, some of these wandering hunters and gatherers adopted the more sedentary ways of their Pueblo neighbors. These people became known as Navajos.

In the 17th century, Spanish colonists founded settlements along the Rio Grande River and its tributaries. With them, they brought churro sheep, indigo blue dye and a red dyed wool cloth they called 'bayeta.'

By the time these settlements were built, the Navajos had already learned to weave textiles from Pueblo weavers. With the arrival of the Spanish, Navajo weavers had access to wool, indigo blue dye and red bayeta cloth (which could be raveled to produce red yarn), and this access led to an explosion of artistic creativity in what was to become one of the world's great weaving traditions.

The color, design and quality of Navajo blankets exceeded anything else available in their day. And as Navajo weavers' reputation grew, so did their market, which came to include not only Navajos but other tribes for a thousand miles around, Spanish colonists and even the few brave Europeans who made their way West to seek adventure and/or fortune.

With their color palette of red, blue and natural white and brown, Navajo weavers took a more elaborate approach to patterning than Pueblo weavers, whose blankets continued to exhibit a conservative Pueblo stripe pattern. This Navajo creativity can be seen most clearly in the serape format.

Boldly designed Navajo serapes with terraced stripes and diamonds define the Classic Period (1800-1865) of Navajo weaving.

During those years, along with adult-sized serapes, Navajos wove a smaller child's version. Some examples are documented as having been collected as early as 1847, but compared to full-size serapes, few early examples have survived. This lack of documentation of early examples has led some scholars to resist accepting the child's serape as worthy of its own category in the Navajo weaving tradition.

An example of a Classic Navajo child's blanket

I believe, however, if one considers the cultural/historical context during the Classic Period, it is possible to consider the child's serape as legitimate counterpart to the full-sized version.

Prior to the Mexican-American War of 1846, the Spanish/Mexican trade route from Mexico, together with those items produced locally by Spanish colonials, were the only resources for bayeta and indigo. A finely woven Navajo bayeta serape with a characteristically complex pattern was a rare and highly valued possession, and was treated very carefully. Only the wealthiest individuals could afford to buy a Navajo serape, and even fewer individuals could afford the additional expense of buying serapes for their children.

Nineteenth century children like their 20th century counterparts grew out of their clothes quickly, and treated them roughly when they wore them. It is understandable that few Classic child's serapes were woven, and that even fewer have survived into the 20th century. During and after the Navajo internment at Bosque Redondo (1864-1868) and the establishment of the Navajo reservation in 1872, Navajo weavers continued to weave blankets for themselves, for other Indians and for the newly established Reservation traders, who sold the blankets to Anglo customers as Navajo Indian curios.

Like most surviving examples of 19th century Navajo weaving, most child's serapes are of Late Classic vintage (1864-1880), and many of these are in excellent condition, suggesting they were never worn and probably sold to non-Indians as souvenirs.

It is my belief that the existence of child's serapes in good condition is not an indication of a new category of Navajo weaving, serapes that were created in response to a demand for smaller curio blankets. Instead, I believe the existence of these serapes is the continuation of the long established tradition of weaving child's serapes, with Navajo weavers making more of them than ever to sell to their expanded market Anglos as well as their traditional market Navajos and other Indians.

One only has to look at the variety of intricately patterned finely woven child's serapes to know that as much creativity, effort and love went into their creation as went into the best of the full-sized blankets woven for adults.

Christopher Selser is co-author of The Navaho Weaving Tradition: 1650 to the Present, and is a founding member of ATADA.

Clovis and Beyond

A Report from Forrest Fenn

A group of 40 of the country's most knowledgeable Paleoscientists converged to speak at the Sweeney Convention Center in Santa Fe over the Halloween weekend to discuss new facts and theories related to the peopling of the Americas. Although the theory of man crossing the land bridge between Asia and North America some 13,500 years ago is still strongly held by many experts, it is being supplemented by plausible new ideas.

The conference, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, the Center for The Study of the First Americans and the Museum of New Mexico Laboratory of Anthropology, was called "Clovis and Beyond." The four-day meeting attracted 1,400 interested professional and avocational archaeologists, collectors and enthusiasts from around the world.

A major part of the program was an exhibition of the most important Original Clovis projectiles and related materials ever assembled. It included collections from The Peabody Museum, The Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of the Great Plains, The Denver Museum of Natural History, Blackwater Draw and the Universities of Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada, Texas and others. The private collections of Forrest Fenn, Dr. Leslie Pfeiffer, Mark Mullins and Dana Harper rounded out the 51 exhibits on display.

A small splinter group of local archaeologists objected to privately held Clovis collections being shown at a conference of this magnitude in the same context as collections held in the public trust. The objections seemed to be that the "notoriety would enhance the value of the private collections." One of the archaeologists said he would resign from the Society of American Archaeology because its president was a conference speaker. Dr. Ken Tankersley of Kent State University said, "It is crucial that these private collections and the information they contain be studied and the information be included in our stingy reservoir of knowledge related to these ancient peoples."

Dr. Dennis Stanford, head of the Anthropology Department at the Smithsonian Institution, was keynote speaker at a banquet held Saturday night. He introduced an interesting hypothesis on how the first humans might have reached the Americas, suggesting that the much earlier Solutrean culture in Europe could have made its way from Europe's Iberian peninsula to the east coast of North America by boat, via the icy Atlantic Ocean some 18,000 years ago. His compelling case was illustrated by slides showing the similarities between Solutrean and Clovis stone tools.

Of special interest at the conference was a panel made up of experts who discussed "The Future of Public Policy: Where Do We Go From Here?" Most of the eight speakers on the panel are key players representing both sides in the law suit over the disposition of the Kennewick man skeleton. It was a spirited exchange of ideas and theories that are before a Federal Court in Portland, Oregon. The outcome of this case will have far reaching implications related to whether scientists will be allowed to study newly discovered human remains, or be required to immediately return them to Native Americans tribes for reburial.

Documentation of the conference was made by two film crews and two books describing the proceedings are in preparation.

Forrest Fenn

Tri-Cultural Use of the Cerrillos Mines

by Frances Joan Mathien

Located 15 to 20 miles southwest of Santa Fe, the low hills known as Los Cerrillos contain deposits of copper, silver, lead, zinc, iron, gold, and turquoise. Beginning with the prehistoric mining of turquoise, these mineral deposits have been important to Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and American miners who have left considerable evidence of their operations. These remains present a unique opportunity to study the mining record of these cultures. The area in which the mines are located, encompasses about 30 square miles. Both the size of the area and its mixed ownership (patented, public domain, state-owned) hinder preservation. The Cerrillos Mining District was placed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 1973, but it is not on the National Register of Historical Places.

Although the Spanish explorers noted the mines of the Native Americans in the Cerrillos Hills during the 1500's, it has only been during the past 30 years that detailed documentation of prehistoric, Spanish, and Mexican mining localities in the Cerrillos Hills has occurred. A. Helene Warren, a geologist whose interests were in archaeologically-related studies, including early mining, focused on one half section of land in the southern Cerrillos hills as part of an environmental inventory and analysis for the Occidental Minerals Corporation, but she also explored other nearby mining sites as well (Warren 1974 Warren and Mathien 1985 Warren and Weber 1979). Under the direction of Daisy Levine, of the Museum of New Mexico, additional survey for the Mining and Minerals Division of the New Mexico Department of Energy and Minerals focused on one full section located immediately north of the half section surveyed by Warren (Levine and Goodman 1990) prior to back-filling dangerous mine shafts. Homer Milford of the New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Bureau examined two areas at the northern end of the district: Turquoise Hill (Swick 1995) and the Real de los Cerrillos (Milford and Swick 1995). The work of these and other scholars provides the basis for the following discussion. 

Native American Mining

Native American mining in the Cerrillos Hills included extraction of both turquoise and galena, a lead glance that contains silver and other minerals. Blue-green stones, especially turquoise, have been important to southwestern inhabitants for over a millennium. The Spanish observed Native American use of turquoise as soon as they visited tribes in New Mexico (Schroeder 1979), and there is an increase in the number of turquoise artifacts recovered from prehistoric site dating around 900 (Mathien 1981 Snow 1973). Spanish and Mexican records of the prehistoric use of turquoise mines are vague, but sources of turquoise discovered since the mid-1800's all indicate earlier mining (Jones 1909 Pogue 1915). It is one of the Cerrillos mines, Mount Chalchihuitl, that provides evidence for the greatest mining activity. W. P. Blake (1858), the first geologist to visit the area in the American period, heard about the mines from Navajo and Pueblo Indians who wore turquoise stones as ornaments and prized them for trade.

Recent surveys (Levine and Goodman 1990 Milford and Swick 1995 Warren 1974 Warren and Mathien 1985) indicate that the Native Americans utilized several areas in the Cerrillos Hills. In the north, at the Castilian and Tiffany pits on Turquoise Hill sherd collections indicate prehistoric use by the 10th century. Based on a number of sherds, however, the greatest mining activities probably took place during the years between 1375 to 1500. In the southern part, in addition to Mount Chalchihuitl, there are three major turquoise mining areas: the ridge west of Mina del Tiro, the O'Neil Blue Bell turquoise mines, and the Bonito quarries on the hills south of Franklin Ridge. In addition, there are two small pits on the east side of Franklin Ridge and the Firefly quarries that may have been the location of the earliest mine. One pit is adjacent to a small turquoise workshop that had several sherds that date approximately from 875 to 1050. Similar sherds were found at workshops west of Mina del Tiro and on the north end of Franklin Ridge. Other prehistoric mining occurred in the foothills of Mount McKensie and Grand Central Mountain (Warren and Mathien 1985).

Warren's analysis of potsherds from the Cerrillos mines indicates two major periods of prehistoric utilization 1000 - 1150 or 1200 when Chaco Canyon (about 100 airline miles to the west) was the major center of cultural development which utilized great quantities of turquoise, and from 1350 to 1680 when there was a major expansion of pueblo culture in the area along the Rio Grande. During the earlier period, sherds from the mines came mainly from the eastern Red Mesa Valley (where numerous Chaco related sites have been documented), as well as some from the Upper Rio Grande Valley. Sherds from the later period suggested strong ties to San Marcos Pueblo, located about two miles east of the mines. Weaker ties to Tonque Pueblo to the south and the Pajarito Plateau to the west were also suggested (Warren and Mathien 1985).

Mining tools recovered from these prehistoric sites include grooved axes, mauls. picks, hand-held hammers, anvils, and lapidary stones. The tools are usually made from local material such as, igneous rocks, plus hornfels, quartzite, sandstone or vein quartz. The lapidary stones are usually found in workshop areas where the host rock was removed from the turquoise prior to modification into beads and pendants.

That non-local people mined the Cerrillos Hills during the early period is suggested by the evidence from five small pueblos and a sherd and lithic scatter known as the Bronze Trail Group located approximately one kilometer east of the southern turquoise mines (Wiseman and Darling . 1986). Although a few sherds suggested brief occupation of two of the sites prior to 900, the majority of the sherds were attributed to 900 - 1200, with only a few indicating post 1300 use of these sites. Wiseman and Darling (1986) suggest these sites were used by miners solely for the purpose of turquoise extraction. Architectural differences between these sites and contemporary local Rio Grande pueblos, the absence of tools related to subsistence activities (e.g., manos, metates, and projectile points), the location of the Bronze Trail sites on non-arable land, and the dominance of turquoise debris, lapstones, and mining tools at these sites indicates the presence of people who used the sites for turquoise procurement. The majority of the sherds indicated ties to the Mount Taylor area just east of the Red Mesa Valley.

After 1300, but prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the nearest Native Americans lived at San Marcos Pueblo (1300 -1700). After 1700, sporadic visits to the turquoise mines by small groups of Native Americans probably took place. During the American period, there are records of groups of three or four visiting Mount Chalchihuitl and Turquoise Hill (Schroeder 1979). Indians from Santo Domingo Pueblo claimed ownership of the Cerrillos turquoise mines (Schroeder 1979), but Snow (1973) indicates that members of Santa Ana, Cochiti, San Felipe, and San Ildefonso are among the puebloans who indicate use of these mines in the historic period.

Prehistoric lead mines were investigated by the Spanish as soon as they explored the area in the 1500's, and confirming evidence of their use by Native Americans was collected during surveys and excavations. Warren (1974) documented 12 galena mines the ore was used for prehistoric glaze paint on Rio Grande pottery from 1300 to 1700. Lead glazed ceramics were also recovered from the Ruelena (Pennsylvania) Mine (Milford and Swick 1995). Two excavations have been carried out. At mina del Tiro, galena was extracted for 1,800 feet along the vein outcrop and to unknown depths at the Bethsheba mine excavations by the Albuquerque Archaeological Society were carried out to 23 feet (Richard Bice, personal communication 1998 Sundt 1993). Tools and sherds dating from 1300 to 1700 recovered from the lead mines were similar to those  found at the turquoise mines. Spanish documents indicate the inhabitants of San Marcos Pueblo and other small sites along San Marcos Arroyo utilized these mines. The few sherds dating after 1700 and the lack of glaze paint on pottery after this date are in agreement with the Spanish records that the Native Americans did not work the mines after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

Spanish and Mexican Mining

In 1581, members of the Rodriguez-Chamuscado Expedition were led to galena and copper deposits by inhabitants of San Marcos Pueblo. When samples were taken, silver was among the minerals present (Milford and Swick 1995). Extensive mineral exploration began with colonization in 1581 silver ore was extracted within the first few weeks. During the first few years, both smelting and the use of quicksilver techniques were employed by Juan de Onate and Vincente de Zalvidar. The few government documents that survived the period 1610 to 1690 indicate that the small Spanish population was aware of silver deposits in the area, but references to mining are silent. In the 1630's, however, one of the 50 male residents of Santa Fe was listed as a silversmith. Some of the pottery at the galena mines dates to this period. Milford and Swick (1995) suggest that the lack of a written record may be due, in part, to a desire to avoid taxes and retain subsidization of the colony's missionary efforts by the crown.

In the mid-1600's, a ranch was established south of the Santa Fe River near Alamo Creek and the nearby hills were given the name Los Cerrillos. Because all local records were destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, there is no documentation of mining activity until after that date. The earliest surviving record of a mining camp being founded and recognized as an official community dates to 1695 when Governor De Vargas appointed a mayor for El Real de los Cerrillos. This enterprise included three lead-silver mines that were "reopened" and may represent the mines that Vincente Zalvidar established earlier (the Santa Rosa and the Mina del Tiro were both known since 1581). This is the oldest Western mining camp in the United States for which we have a clear record. The camp was closed in 1696 at the start of another revolt, and the camp was never reoccupied. In 1697, Governor Rodriguez Cubrero confiscated De Vargas' property he then owned the Santa Rosa silver mines until 1703 when De Vargas returned as governor. Both men died in 1704 in 1709, Juan de Ulibarri received title to the Santa Rosa mine. There are few references to the mine after 1709 (Milford and Swick 1995).

Around 1763-1764, Tomas Antonio de Sena, Bartholome Fernandez, and Manuel Duran y Chavez requested title to Nuestra Senora de los Dolores Mine Grant (Our Lady of Sorrows). Milford (Swick 1995) reviewed evidence for this and two other mining claims from 1764 and concluded that these should be identified as the Castillian Mine or the Old Indian Prospect on Turquoise Hill (Milford 1995). No other records exist for the mines on Turquoise Hill until the American period. A few records acknowledge the presence of silver in the area, but note that little mining took place, probably because smelting was not profitable. Because a few threads of gold have been. found in the turquoise, Milford (1995) speculates the Spanish may have been looking for gold, a quest that was not rewarded then or during the later American period explorations.

After Mexican independence (1821), Milford (Milford and Swick 1995) indicates that there were 50 known lead veins in Los Cerrillos, several of which were known to be old mines. In 1830, Alvarado reopened the Santa Rosa Mine and a group of other men formed a mining company to operate three mines, one of them being Mina de Tiro - where Milford suggests they cleaned out an earlier Spanish shaft. Milford reports that one of the logs from the Bethesda mine provided a tree ring sample that dated to 1832.

Documented evidence for turquoise mining during the Spanish and Mexican periods is limited and much of what follows is inferential. That the Nahuatl word, Chalchihuitl, was used to denote turquoise and that this name was given to the largest prehistoric turquoise mine suggests that the Nahuatl-speaking Tlascalans who accompanied Onate may have been involved in mining, Turquoise would have been an important gemstone for the Tlascalans, and it would have been accepted in trade by local pueblo people. Because the Spanish did not value turquoise, it was seldom mentioned in their documents. That the name "Old Indian Prospect" was still used for an area on Turquoise Hill in the 19th century, and because the deposits at Mount Chalchihuitl proved to be much depleted during the American period while those on Turquoise Hill were productive during the 1880's, may indicate continued use of the northern turquoise mines during the Spanish period (Swick 1995).

American Mining (post 1846)

During the 1850s and 1860s, the Delgado family claimed the Cerrillos area as part of a land grant (Milford and Swick 1995). In 1861, the Mina de Tiro was leased from the Delgados and an earlier mine shaft was reopened. When the mine collapsed, the miners refused to return to work. The government rejected the Delgados claim and opened the area to purchase in 1870. By 1872, Santa Fe entrepreneurs had purchased the lands containing most of the old silver mines from the government and the Santa Rosa and Ruelena were reopened. In 1878, the owners of some of the mines hired Robert Hart from Leadville, Colorado, to supervise the development of their mines. Hart prospected on the areas still owned by the government and found some good silver veins. He returned to Leadville to recruit other miners. In 1879, with the influx of Colorado miners and much news coverage, the boom that was to make the Cerrillos Mining District famous began.

When the Cerrillos mines were the only known source of turquoise in the late-19th century, mining claims on Turquoise Hill were profitable investments. The American Turquoise Company and its mine manager, J.P. McNulty, developed their turquoise claims until circa 1914, but the discovery by Americans of other turquoise deposits in the Southwest brought a decline in price and eventual decreased production.

Recently, drilling for copper ores by Occidental Minerals was strongly opposed by local inhabitants and mining operations soon ceased (Bice, personal communication 1998). Today, several areas are being mined for gravel, but the minerals do not bring in sufficient funds to induce major extractive operations. Although there is a long history of mining in the Cerrillos Hills and a few individual owners who are attempting to preserve the evidence of earlier operations, e.g., the Millennium Complex consisting of the Tiffany and Castilian mines on Turquoise Hill, there is unfortunately no overall plan to preserve this important multicultural mining history or to evaluate its potential eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places.

Frances Joan Mathien is an archeologist in the Santa Fe Support Office of the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service. Her research has focused on the prehistoric inhabitants of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, especially their use of turquoise. Because sources of this semi-precious stone are numerous and are located at some distance from Chaco Canyon, studies designed to locate the sources used have been part of her ongoing research for several years.

Reprint from CRS #7, 1998

Deciphering a Monument

National Park Service Takes Stock of a Treasure

The handwriting of 15 centuries lines the steep and silent walls of Canyon del Muerto - 5,000 panels of rock art, with up to 1,000 inscriptions on each one - typifying the abundance of perishable artifacts scattered about the towering cliffs, hidden alcoves, and desiccated river banks in this remote corner of Arizona's Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The silence belies the canyon's extraordinary lineage of inhabitants, from the ancient cliff dwellers to Navajo warriors, which the Park Service is recording in the most intensive, multi-faceted reconnaissance of the monument ever attempted.

A 19th century Navajo rock painting depicts a column of Spanish soldiers entering Canyon de Chelly. Rock art illustrating documented events can be found throughout the area.

So far, investigators have added over 500 previously unknown sites to the monument's inventory - among them the depressions of once-great kivas and the walls of pueblos worn down by centuries of flooding - as they chart the rise and fall of communities over the centuries. Perhaps most surprising is the wealth of evidence left by the canyon's earliest residents, the Basket Makers, including stone coffins dug out of alcove floors, some still covered by mat roofs smeared with greenish shale plaster.

The surveyors studied the entire 25-mile length of the canyon, clambering up slick expanses of rock to get to remote alcoves carved out of the cliff face by millions of years of weathering. Each site was mapped and photographed, its significance analyzed and condition evaluated. Many side canyons have their own "microenvironments" that require preservation strategies tailored to the setting.

The results of the survey - including soil analyses and GIS maps - were entered into a database designed to help the Park Service manage and interpret the monument. A second database, which houses almost 7,000 project photographs, can be sorted by categories ranging from "rock art" to "eroding structures."

In addition, the park historian is inventorying the cultural landscape of the canyon - including sites still considered traditionally significant by the Navajos - and analyzing the impact of soil conservation projects in the 1930s on the evolution of the canyon floor. Preliminary results demonstrate that changes wrought in the 20th century, as with so much of the American West, have been widespread and dramatic.

Reprint from Common Ground, June, 1998.

Pueblo Secrecy: Result of Intrusions

by Joseph H. Suina

(Editor's note New Mexico Magazine: Our acknowledgement of the Quincentenary year would be incomplete without reflection on the impact the newcomers had on the Native American people. To increase cultural understanding, Joseph H. Suina of Cochiti Pueblo writes an essay that addresses why the Pueblo Indians continue to guard many of their beliefs in secrecy and how this practice led to the preservation of their beliefs and traditions.)

The Pueblo Indians of the Southwest mystify and even frustrate outsiders because of their secret ways. They deliberately conceal information if they consider it related to their religious, ceremonial life. The inquisitive non-Puebloan soon discovers the impenetrable shield that protects a good portion of traditional Pueblo culture. Through evasive responses or silence, the Pueblo people establish a barrier against what would be considered only curious and inoffensive inquiries in other cultures. Even the young are skilled at these behaviors should they face questions from a tourist or even from a teacher. From an early age, Pueblo children are taught not to divulge certain information to outsiders.

Highly visible signs forbidding picture-taking, sketching and other forms of recording are posted on the outskirts as well as in the village center. Visitors' recording devices, such as cameras, can be impounded by tribal officials and violators are faced with a possible fine. Usually, the film is confiscated and a warning issued to the embarrassed offender. Occasionally a Pueblo village will be closed to the outside world for periods of two or three days to celebrate a private religious event. Not even the U.S. mail gets through. In this instance, outsiders might include other Indians as well. Some Pueblo villages perform their sacred doings using the cover of night along with other tight security measures. Villagers suspected of revealing information are chastised and shunned by their fellows. They might be subject to appear before the elders for discipline. These are ways Pueblos maintain an inner circle of their people with the knowledge, values and practices they consider their own.

Secrecy is frustrating for the casually curious as well as the serious student of the Pueblos. While many carry their frustration in silence, some express resentment over the matter. A common interpretation of secrecy is that Pueblos simply are not cooperative. A more negative one is that they exercise a form of racism to avenge Spanish and Anglo injustices endured over the years. While neither interpretation approaches the true motivation for Pueblo secrecy, both represent typical conclusions of uninformed non-Indians. In their extreme, such mismatched interpretations can mean a complete breakdown of understanding and respect between the cultures. Misinterpretation of Pueblo secrecy is partly due to differing views of knowledge held by the different cultures. In the Anglo world, knowledge is highly regarded and its acquisition is rewarded in a variety of ways, including admiration of knowledge for its own sake. With the exception of protected government information and personal privacy, almost any information is at hand the inquisitive soul needs only to have desire, time and energy.

But that is not the case in the Pueblo world. Like the Anglos, Pueblo Indians consider knowledge to be of high value. Some types of knowledge, however, are accessible only to the mature and responsible. This is particularly the case with esoteric information that requires a religious commitment before it can be acquired and used. For example, the Pueblo healer must dedicate his knowledge and energies for the remainder of his life, not for personal gain, but for the welfare of the people. Maturity as a prerequisite to knowledge affects even the most ordinary individual in the village. Deemed mature, he or she is provided knowledge that was painstakingly withheld up to this point. This person not only will be accorded the knowledge, but also will actively be assisted by the elders to acquire as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

Other types of information might be withheld on the basis of gender alone. A husband will conceal male information from his wife. Likewise, a woman, if a member of a religious society, must not reveal information even to her spouse. While gender, maturation and commitment provide the basis for acquiring knowledge, there always is some type of knowledge that is taboo to someone in the Pueblo community. The motive for withholding information is that the criteria for knowledge has not been attained.

In the Pueblo world, the unconfirmed are not to display even a hint of curiosity about the forbidden. Delving into these areas is said to be inviting responsibility for which one is not prepared, a responsibility one will most certainly regret. The curious one is regarded as disrespectful of that which is sacred and perhaps as committing a sacrilegious act.

Differing views on knowledge cause misunderstanding of the motives as well as the character of the members of one culture by the other. On one hand, the non-Indian feels information is deliberately withheld for no other reason than a scorn towards outsiders. On the other hand, Pueblos often perceive the inquisitive ways of Anglos as nosey. This might result not only in frustration, but also in disdain for associating with one another.

Historically, the reason why Pueblos withhold information derives from brutal encounters with early Europeans. The Spaniards viewed Pueblos as pagans, celebrating false idols, by Christian standards. They also saw the Pueblos as potential converts to the one true God through the Roman Catholic Church. Subverting the indigenous religion was the first step to replacing it with Christianity. Action against the Pueblo religion included collecting and burning religious paraphernalia before the public. Religious leaders were sought and whipped in front of their people to make examples of them. Such persecution resulted in more than just anger on the part of the Pueblos. It compelled them to value more deeply the core of their existence, their native religion.

Religious items, locations, ideas, activities and leaders became well guarded matters within the village. Secrecy became synonymous with preservation and was elevated to the status of community wide effort to save native religion. Eventually, much of what was considered religious was taken underground and guarded at all cost. The result was exactly the opposite of what the Spaniards had striven to achieve.

The religious conflicts with Spaniards eventually eased after many years and events, including the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in which the Pueblos evicted the Spaniards from what is now the Southwest, a feat never achieved by any other tribe in North America. The return of the Spaniards 12 years later brought newfound respect for the Pueblos and an alliance between the two for protection against marauding tribes. Over time, the church's persistence made significant inroads into the Pueblo culture. The majority of Pueblo people eventually adopted Catholicism, but not at the expense of their native religion.

Outside the Pueblo world, governments fell and rose Spanish rule gave way to a short-lived Mexican government, that was succeeded by Anglo-American dominance. The credit for maintaining a rich native religion for more than the 300 years of intercultural relations must be given to the most important weapon: secrecy. Attempts to eliminate native religion took on renewed vigor with the advent of the U.S. government, which sought to obliterate the total native culture as well. Indian youth were removed to distant boarding schools for years at a time and taught the white man's ways, while their own traditional values were suppressed. The idea was to replace their very essence with European values and ways of perceiving the world. The tribal system, and especially the native religion, were again major impediments in the attempted transformation process. The government soon learned that changing the culture, even in the young, was no easy task. The student who returned to the reservation quickly succumbed to tribal influences and "returned to the blanket." To step up the acculturation effort, the government established and imposed the Religious Crimes Code in 1923.

The Religious Crimes Code was intended to prohibit ceremonial practices that might be contrary to accepted Christian standards and to take punitive measures against leaders who encouraged or permitted such activities. Some specific directives of the code included:

*That Indian dances be limited to once each month in the daylight hours of one day in the midweek and at one center in each district, except for the months of March, April, June, July and August when no dances were allowed.

*That no one less than 50 years old take part in these dances or be present.

*That a careful propaganda program be undertaken to educate public opinion against the (Indian) dance.

Suppression of Indian customs and ceremonial activities was not only focused on the Pueblos, but also it was a general policy of the U.S. government imposed on all Indian groups in the country. The Pueblos, because of their rich ceremonial life, were profoundly affected by it. It was unthinkable not to perform certain ceremonies on restricted days or not to have the young involved. The result was that the Pueblos again concealed their native ceremonial system just as they had when Spanish oppression was most severe.

Assaults on religion were not the only antagonism experienced at the hands of the government during this period of time. The Bursom Bill (1923), designed to quiet land title questions, involved the Pueblos of the Southwest. The burden of proof to show ownership of land was place on the Pueblos. This meant the original inhabitants of the land were forced to disprove outside ownership of land according to the definition of ownership of the latecomers and with a form of documentation that meant written records. Such a demand was absurd for several reasons: First, the Pueblos had occupied the land long before others second, Pueblo records were not written and third, the Pueblos did not conceive of land ownership in the same manner as the American government.

A more recent government attempt to subvert the Native American culture came in the 1950's, during the "termination era." The official government policy was to terminate the special relationship the tribes had with the federal government. More importantly, it was an attempt to dissolve the ancient cultural system of Native Americans. Before the policy was rescinded, some tribes were terminated only to result in disaster. This sent fear through Native American communities across the country the message was clear: Their rights were not all secure under the protective eye of the government. Again, the Pueblo view that they could not be too open with their land and culture was reinforced. Caution was once again the key.

The relocation program that the government instituted and encouraged in this period was perceived by tribes as another means of termination. To the government the concept was simple: Relocate Indians in cities and towns throughout the United States and they would become assimilated and independent of the tribe and government. Washington's solution was complete with vocational training, job placement and adjustment assistance particularly intended to move young families off the reservation. After enough tribal members were moved, the reservations would "dry up" and traditions would wither since there would not be any young left to carry them on.

The curious tourist and scholar also have contributed to Pueblo secrecy. Their careless and, at times, rude behavior has appalled and outraged the Pueblos. For example, a tourist was recently spotted on top of a kiva, a ceremonial chamber that is off limits, even to villagers, except during special events. The shutter of the tourist's camera was snapping rapidly into the opening of the kiva, as he totally ignored the numerous "off limits" and "no picture-taking" signs.

For the most part, visitors are courteous and respectful. Unfortunately, it takes only one incident of disrespect to remind Pueblos of previous invasions. Prior experiences have created what, at times, seems like a less-than-understanding reaction from the Pueblos. In recent years, the Hopis closed certain religious ceremonies to the public because of the "circus atmosphere they've turned it into,"according to a tribal spokesman. In 1990, Zuni Pueblo also decided to bar outsiders from viewing the famed Shalako dances conducted in December, due to "insensitivity and disrespect for the sacred nature of the ceremony."

Perhaps the most frequent and irritating infractions are committed by professional photographers, writers and scholars. Time and time again, they have managed to gain the trust of Pueblo people who, in turn, share bits of information in good faith, only to see this knowledge made accessible to the general population. What is particularly distressing is when unscrupulous outsiders take advantage of a desperate Pueblo individual.

Not all violations are purposely with that intent. An honest and well-intentioned act that might result in conflict comes from the outsider who has a genuine desire to befriend Pueblo people. To an Anglo, asking questions is a sure way to spark good rapport. While that might work well with Anglos, Pueblos might send up a caution flag for a possible scalper of information, or it might be perceived as intrusion and rude behavior. The type of question is more important than the number asked. A question closely tied to native religion and ceremony will elicit wrath where as those on the weather or the upcoming Indian Market will pave the way to a friendly relationship.

In spite of the sensitive nature of this cultural difference, there are any number of close friendships between Pueblos and non-Pueblos. Such relationships have been established through time, patience and respect for one another's traditions. Respect means becoming knowledgeable of the Pueblos through the acceptable process. Respect also means accepting cultural patterns that differ from those of the dominate society. Many excellent publications, information centers and other media resources are available for information. Most importantly, there are Pueblo people who will share their world properly from their perspective.

Joseph H. Suina, a member of Cochiti Pueblo, teaches in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico. He continues to live at Cochiti and is active in community affairs.

Reprint from Common Ground, June, 1998.

Indian Women Are Returning To Their Traditional Leadership Roles 

by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez

In Dineh (Navajo) teachings, you can't pray without the female deities. Women provide balance. "No prayer is complete without the female. Without the female nothing can be done," says LeNora Fulton. She figures it should be the same way in government. 

So when Fulton decided to run for president of the Navajo nation, she started hauling 400-pound timber to build a hogan with her own hands. The traditional home is used as her headquarters and to show that she didn't need outside help. "You do all your planning for your family, the council and the nation from the home," she says. 

She goes against seven male candidates for the leadership of her people on Aug. 4. While she's been told the presidency is men's work, she notes that key issues facing Indian Country have been the traditional purview of women education, the family, housing and health. 

Navajo women have historically been part of the decision making and were key to defeating gaming on the reservation last year. Fulton, who is a grandmother and the granddaughter of a medicine man, had bought land and was raising her own alfalfa and sheep by age 18. And like other Navajos, she was taught she has divine beginnings.. "I'm a sacred being, raised to be a leader."

All over Indian Country, women are reasserting leadership, whether it be in tribal government or establishing drumming societies, which are primarily men's domain. Native women and elders view this as the manifestation of prophesies predicting that the power of women would re-emerge to strengthen their nations. 

While some tribes have elected female chiefs such as Cherokee Wilma Mankiller, others do not permit women to vote or to serve on tribal councils, some arguing that it goes against tradition. 

"It's not tradition that needs to change," says Fulton of her own tribe. It's the Bureau of Indian Affairs-imposed form of government. "Tradition has always honored and revered women."

Futon notes that the councils, established in the 1930's, diminished the participation of elders, traditional leaders and women. Consequently, these relationships "went out of balance." Women agreed to the councils as long as the men conferred with them and they reached a consensus. This arrangement no longer functioned in the 1970s with the increase in alcoholism and divorce and the loss of traditions in general. In the past decade, Dineh women started electing females to tribal council, and now 51 more are running.

Female creators, forces and protective spirits are central in many native religions, showing how women and the feminine principle were long revered. Among the Iroquois and Cherokee, women selected and disposed of chiefs and participated in decisions of war and peace. In one famous encounter of the early 1700s, a Cherokee leader asked the British, "Where are your women?" While the Iroquois Confederacy is credited with inspiring the U.S. Constitution, less commonly known is that it was the decisions and words of the women's council that were represented by male envoys to other tribes and to the likes of Benjamin Franklin, who chose to diminish the rights of women in the Constitution. 

And traditions do change. Sharon Mountain, a Dakota and Red Lake Anishnabe Indian who is drumkeeper of the Red Drum Woman Society, says that elders speak of long ago when the women drummed and the men danced. "Then they let the men come to the drum and the women switched," she said. Elders also told her that she would "lead differently" and with the drum. Often, families bring daughters to the drum who are unruly, and they learn to walk a good path and return as community leaders, Mountain said. 

Germaine Tremmel is the last living ancestral member of the Red Robe Society, which was inspired by a Lakota grandmother who fought in battle. She speaks of the reappearance of women's societies that had gone underground. As a result of a woman's vision, one society was created to protect women from violence. Her tribal elders have told her of the renewal of indigenous cultures, "but first women must take their place of honor."   To that end, she established the Mending the Sacred Hoop Within Project, based in Minnesota and South Dakota. 

An Eastern Cherokee friend who lives in Michigan recounted recently how about three years ago, young girls just started walking up to sing with the drummers at gatherings all over the state. "The men didn't have enough nerve to stop them." Now the girls and women have been singing ever since. She says, "It's one magnificent sound."

Husband and wife team based in Albuquerque, NM, Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez write for the Universal Press Syndicate.

Bob Bauver reviews Cindra Kline's new book on Navajo Spoons 

Navajo Spoons: Indian Artistry and the Souvenir Trade, 1880's - 1940's by Cindra Kline (Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 2001) 

Since John Adair's landmark study on Navajo and Pueblo silversmiths in the late 1930s, there have been a number of overviews written on the subject. Spanning the history of the craft from its nineteenth century beginnings to the current present of those writings, these studies have traced the major stylistic changes and forms for the periods they cover. Complete as these efforts have been, by the enormity of their scope, certain areas have at times only been given passing notice. 

At this point in the ongoing study of the art and history of the region, it is necessary to focus attention on specifics. Cindra Kline's new book on Navajo spoons does just that. Regarded as purely tourist items, early Navajo silver spoons were largely ignored by the serious scholars and aficionados of the craft. The fact of the matter is that this is exactly the case. Navajo spoons were the native version of the souvenir spoons so avidly sought out by travelers caught up in the spoon collecting mania of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Made at the same time and by the same techniques as the prized bracelets and concho belts, these spoons hold the same place in the history of the art as does the more highly respected jewelry. 

Researching examples in private and museum collections throughout the country, Cindra provides the reader with a history of the object from its naive beginnings and traces spoons through half a century of development, ending just before World War II. Illustrated with many previously unpublished photos, the highly imaginative aspect of these spoons is well documented. 

The book also contains a substantial body of well-researched facts and information, making it an excellent addition to the library of both the advanced and beginning collector. 

Bob Bauver 

ATADA Newsletter

Fall, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE.

Executive Committee Nominations - send us yours

Membership Drive

ATADA Lifetime Achievement Awards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FROM THE PRESIDENT.

The month of August in Santa Fe hosted three shows of antique tribal, ethnographic and American Indian art.  Much to many dealers pleasant surprise, it appears things are looking up in the tribal art marketplace.   Speculation about the reasons for the increase in  attendance, level of interest and upturn in sales  included comments about unhappy stock market investors  moving money into 'collectibles' or that Americans have finally adjusted to the 'new realities' of economic and political uncertainty and want to 'get on' with their lives and indulge their 'pent-up' desires.  Either way, we are fortunate to be in an industry resilient to economic trends.

Christopher Selser

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK.

 

This issue marks the first appearance of a page (or more) dedicated to our Museum Members (thanks to Museum Committee chair Bob Bauver for the idea).   In every issue, we will list exhibits, news and more about the museums who belong to ATADA.  In this issue, along with news and show schedules, we also have an article about Fruitlands Museum, recipient of an ATADA grant, by curator Michael Volmar, describing the museum's history and Native American art collection.

In this issue, we also have announcements of two upcoming shows produced by member Kim Martindale.  This information about shows and museum exhibits will also be posted on www.atada.org.

Please note the slate of nominees for ATADA's new executive board that follows this letter.  Members are encouraged to send additional nominations ballots with the names of all nominees will be mailed to all members by December.

It was great to see so many ATADA members in Santa Fe in August, and really great to see so much sales activity!

Alice Kaufman

Membership Drive

**********We have included copies of the Full Member and Associate applications in this issue in the hope that our members will copy the applications and send them to potential members taken from their mailing lists. 

New ATADA Lifetime Achievement Awards

Robert Bauver's Proposal

Earlier this year, a proposal was put before the board to create an ATADA-sponsored Lifetime Achievement Award to be given to senior individuals who have devoted their lives to scholarship in the areas of tribal art and who have unselfishly shared the fruits of those studies. This idea was approved by the board and was presented to the membership at large at the annual August meeting where it was decided to further investigate the feasibility of such an idea.

The details of the proposal are as follows the award would be restricted to individuals over the age of 70 who have spent the majority of their career involved in tribal arts. This would include not only dealers but museum directors and curators as well as independent scholars, collectors and archeologists. Part of the purpose of this award would be to create further ties with other areas of study outside the immediate dealer/collector community.

This would be a large scale, invitation-only, formal event, to be held at a suitable location such as La Fonda during August when most people are in town. Because this is proposed as a fundraising event, dinner reservations would be offered at a predetermined amount, perhaps as much as $200 per seating, with the option to contribute further included in the invitation. Invitations would go to full members first, as well as interested parties from museums, etc. Basically, this would be similar to a very complicated wedding reception so a great deal of planning will be required. If it idea succeeds and is to be repeated, it would probably be on a four-to-five year basis, both because of the amount of work that will be required and to get another group of recipients into the age requirement.

This would be a very newsworthy event, and we would hope for both local and national coverage in all the related periodicals.

This is still in the planning stages and your input will be greatly appreciated, as will volunteer help in carrying out this plan. At the moment, a date of August 2004 is anticipated for the first event.

For more information, to nominate award recipients or to volunteer to help plan this event, please contact Alice Kaufman or Robert Bauver.

 

ATADA Meeting Minutes from the Executive Board and General Membership meetings in Santa Fe, August, 2002

 

Present at the Executive Board meeting, Sunday, August 11, 8:30 AM:

 

Bob Bauver

Merrill Domas

Roger Fry

Bob Gallegos

Alice Kaufman

Ramona Morris

Chris Selser

Marti Struever

Arch Thiessen

Len Weakley

1. Ramona Morris spoke first, talking about the case of Frederick Schultz, the antiquities dealer who has been found guilty of importing stolen property from Egypt [see Media File, New York Times story, June 12].  "ATADA should be careful and watchful of this case," Ramona said, "as several of our members deal in imported material."  She also spoke of a tendency on the part of certain countries to nationalize all antiquities (she mentioned Mexico and El Salvador as well as Egypt).    Legal Committee chair Roger Fry said that ATADA "can't support foreign laws like this, which allow foreign governments to dictate when someone in the U.S. is committing a crime."  Roger also said that he will follow and report on the case.

2. Chris Selser then gave an update of the criminal cases of Josh Baer and Tommy Cavalier.  Both have been changed with felony charges of feather laws and NAGPRA violations, using, Chris conjectured, the feather laws as leverage to encourage guilty pleas on the NAGPRA charges.

3. Roger Fry said that the Supreme Court will either accept or reject the Kornwolf case by October.  "At least," he said, "we will have preliminary closure."

4. Bob Gallegos gave the Treasurer's Report, saying there was $16,000 in the ATADA account, and that we will end up with a $5,000 surplus to add to our current funds.  In our annual fundraising letter, we will ask for choices of how/where to donate the excess funds.  ATADA will ask for a donation of $200 or less, and will give all money raised to Native American causes.  Bob also announced that he will be stepping back somewhat from the Treasurer's duties, hiring a CPA to take care of most of ATADA's financial matters.  He also plans to hire someone to handle mailings, directory listings, dues and fundraising details.

5. Membership Committee Chair Merrill Domas said that there will be a membership-related letter in American Indian Art magazine, as well as another ad.  A number of Associates have upgraded to Full member status, she said.  She also recommended putting Full and Associate membership information in each issue of the Newsletter.

6. Museum Committee chair Bob Bauver has planned a new page for the Newsletter featuring ATADA's Museum Members' exhibits, lectures, articles and general news.  Adding more Museum Members is one of ATADA's goals for the next year.  Bob also proposed a new ATADA Lifetime Achievement Award (see preceding article). 

7. Speaking about ATADA's group insurance, Chris Selser said that ATADA would offer our agency a peer review group, if that were necessary, and cautioned members to use common sense when filing claims, and not file, he said, frivolous claims "that could result in a rate increase."

At the General Meeting on August 14, President Chris Selser called the meeting to order shortly after 8:30 AM.  Among the issues discussed:

1. On the morning of the third and final day of the Whitehawk show, Chris started by saying the state of the Indian art business was "healthy," and that he was encouraged that most dealers who did some or all of the shows held in Santa Fe during the preceding week "did very well, exceeding expectations.  The attendance and mood were up," he added, asking if this was the beginning of a new upswing for the business.  He also gave a summary of the Executive Board meeting (see above) and asked that members display the ATADA logo in their booths, in ads, on business cards and on stationery.

2. Bob Gallegos updated the membership on the Kornwolf case, saying that even if the cease is not heard in the Supreme Court in September or October, ATADA would be in a position to try to change the law in the legislature.  "Sympathetic ears exist in Congress," he said.  He also spoke about the Baer and Cavalier cases.  Even though the government must prove that an item can was collected after November 1990, when the NAGPRA  law was passed, Gallegos advised, "you are inviting trouble if you display sensitive material."  Tabletas and Kachinas are "OK for now," he added.  "The first documented sale of a Kachina was in 1860, and there have been thousands of transactions since then.  But don't get caught with feathers, even Pomo feathered baskets."  Bob also said the ATADA benefit auction raised about $18,000/20,000, less than the $28,000 he had hoped for.  Of the Allard auction which hosted the ATADA benefit, he said, "Although prices were soft, this was the best venue for ATADA, as we do not have the ability to mount our own auction."  Speaking as Treasurer, Bob said that most of the members had paid their dues, the membership is growing, and that there is a $5,000 surplus not counting fund raising.  This is in addition to ATADA's existing $12,000 CD.  He also mentioned that he planned to hire an accountant to take care of ATADA's finances.  The annual fundraising letter will be going out to members, he added, asking for ideas for grants and other ways to use the money.  Each member will be asked to contribute $200 or less as a result of this letter, $7,000 was raised in 2001.

3. Ramona Morris spoke again (see above) of the Frederick Schultz case, emphasizing the "terrible precedent" the prosecution and Schultz's guilty verdict was setting for the antiquities trade.  "Governments can say anything, and can say that nothing can be exported," she said, and added that ATADA would give support to the appeal, but would not give any money.  "We are the target," she said, "and we can make a difference."

3. Bob Bauver urged the membership to try to get their customers interested in ATADA membership, and encouraged Associates to upgrade to Full member status.  He mentioned ATADA's endowments to Newcomb High School and the Fruitlands Museums, asked the members to alert museums to the fact that ATADA exists and gives grant money, and described the new Museum Members page in the Newsletter.  He also introduced the ATADA Lifetime Achievement Awards to the members, and asked members for nominations.

4. Gaile Sweeney, ATADA's representative at Flather &Perkins Insurance, said that ATADA's group program was successful so far.  "Although the dealer's premium went up 12 ½ percent, we've been able to keep rates low," she said, adding that premiums for personal collections have stayed the same.  The reason rates have gone up, she explained, was not 9/11, but the stock market decline.  As a result, many commercial premiums (not ATADA's), she said, had been raised 25 to 30 percent.  Gaile also congratulated ATADA on submitting only "sensible claims," and that even after the increase, members were still saving 40 to 50 percent on premiums.  She also mentioned that Flather & Perkins is a full-service, nationwide agency, and offers liability insurance, which is, while not part of our group program, "sensible to have."

She also advised that when shipping inventory, if the value is less than the Flather & Perkins deductible, take the UPS/FedEx insurance. If the value exceeds your policy's deductible, she said, refuse the UPS/FedEx insurance, as the items will be covered under your ATADA policy.  Chris Selser agreed with Gaile that liability insurance was important, and added that dealers should consider incorporating to avoid putting their inventory at risk.    Chris also added that as of Tuesday night, three dealers had reported jewelry thefts at the Whitehawk show.

ASK US FOR LOGOS!

ATADA encourages members to display the logo and hand out brochures at shows.  We also encourage members to use the logo on their stationery, invoices and ads.  To request a logo, contact Alice Kaufman at Alice@ATADA.orgor (415) 873-3173

 

 

Museum Page

 

About the Fruitlands Museum:

A Message from the Curator

 

The Fruitlands Museum contains four museums founded by Clara Endicott Sears: Transcendentalist Shaker American Indian and Hudson River landscapes and nineteenth century portraits. In 1912, Sears discovered that her property was the former location of the failed utopian commune begun by the Transcendentalist, A. Bronson Alcott. By 1914, she had established the Transcendentalist Museum. She followed this by creating, in 1920, the world's first Shaker Museum. In the spring of 1928, the serendipitous discovery of Indian arrowheads in the orchard led Miss Sears to establish the Indian Museum two years later. The local focus of her interests and her collection of Hudson River painters and itinerate portrait painters led to the opening of a fine art gallery in 1940. During these years Miss Sears also published books relating to not only her four museums, but on poetry, popular song and romantic novels as well.

Miss Sears was first motivated to create  an Indian Museum when a plow  kicked up some arrowheads in the orchard at the foot of her home ( the Pergolas ). "I began looking into the history of the Nashua Valley and Indian lore....[I] went around to farms asking for strange looking stones...and... began to collect quite a collection" (Sears, Catalogue of the American Indian Museum, 1941:1 ).

The creation of the Indian Museum at Fruitlands spanned the years from 1928 to 1938. Luckily for us, Miss Sears kept careful records of her activities associated with developing this collection. Our archive includes letters she exchanged with the Peabody Museum at Harvard, the Smithsonian, the Rochester Museum, Frank Speck, Dr. Warren K. Moorehead and Col. A. B. Welch and others who were consulted during the formative years of the museums growth. Each assisted her  to varying degrees in obtaining Indian materials for the museum collection.

"I did not want to make it wholly a Museum of lifeless stones that appeal only to the archeologist. I wanted to bring into this building the spirit of the Indians, to give [visitors] some idea of their industries and their love of the beautiful in Art and Nature as well as their war weapons" (Sears, 1941:1), stressing the underlying spirituality of the Indian as well as their close ties to nature.

But still Miss Sears had only "lifeless stones" to illuminate the local "vanished race" of Indians. "I am at present devoting myself to collecting relics of the Massachusetts Indians, a difficult task as they were wiped out a very long time ago." Therefore, she needed something to capture their spirit. She did satisfy these interests by collecting Indian materials from tribes outside New England, in particular, the Sioux. Ethnographic materials acquired through Col. A. B. Welch supplied much of the atmosphere she wanted.

Miss Sears' enthusiasm for the meaning behind the objects and any old associated stories prompted Welch to fill many of his letters with interesting facts and history. Welch taught Sears much about the spiritual and symbolic life of the Sioux, the cornerstone of  her Native American understanding and collection.

Miss Sears recognized and rejected the conventional method of display employed in museums. They lacked a Native American voice. Therefore, it was imperative that her museum have a Native voice, the authenticity of which would empower her exhibits. It is interesting at this point to note that these sentiments have been echoed in recent years by the Native Americans involved in the displaying of objects in the new National Museum in Washington.

In the 1990s, after many years of relatively little change, Fruitlands reexamined its exhibits and collections. Some elements of the exhibits had not been changed since their installation in the late 1920s.  Modern standards for the exhibition and interpretation of ethnographic materials had outpaced the museum's aging displays. In 1994, Fruitlands began to systematically study its Indian collection with the help of Native Americans, scholars and conservators. This led to the dismantling of the original exhibits in 1997. In 1998 we reinstalled the first gallery with an exhibit on local Native American History entitled  One Thousand Generations: Native American History in Southern New England. Several years later in 2002, we installed Objects and Meaning: Multiple Perspectives on Native American Art and Culture.

Fruitlands Native American collection numbers close to 1,000 ethnographic objects, divided between the cultural areas of the Plains, the Southwest and the Northwest Coast. Of that number, approximately half are ethnographic materials, about 150 are baskets and 25 - 30 are pots. Not a huge collection in terms of scale but its size is far surpassed by the quality of the collection.

Michael Volmar

Curator, Fruitlands Museum

   

 

 

Exhibits, Activities and News from ATADA's Museum Members

At the Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Massachusetts

Objects and Meaning - Multiple Perspectives on Native American Art and Culture through November 2003 at least. For information on hours, admission, exhibits and more, go to www.fruitlands.org.

 

At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio

Dine: The People': Life and Culture of the Navajo through January 5, 2003. A Native American Cultural Celebration will also be held on Saturday, November 2, 10 am to 4 pm, that includes a one-day powwow with Native American drummers, hoop dancers, fancy dancers and more. There will also be Navajo storytelling, fry bread and Indian tacos. A special make-and-take project will be offered on the weekend of November 2 and 3.

The exhibition consists of approximately 80 textiles, pieces of jewelry, paintings and other artifacts drawn from the Harmsen Museum of Art in Golden, Colorado and organized by the Colorado Historical Society in Denver.  This exhibition will travel to approximately nine museums across the United States. For hours and admissions, please go to www.cmnh.org.

At the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico

A 20-year retrospective of works by Jicarilla Apache/Kiowa Apache painter Darren Vigil Gray opens on November 17 and runs through April 27.  The exhibition includes more than 50 paintings, drawings, and prints, and is accompanied by a full-color catalog. Free admission.  www.wheelwright.org

At the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff

 

Hollywood's Indians: Stereotypes and Prejudices investigates 100 years of film history and the all-pervasive effect of movies on the way native people are viewed.    The exhibit's posters and lobby cards give us a glimpse at a bizarre jumble of cinematic American Indian images ¾Florida Everglades-dwelling Seminoles in Sioux war bonnets battling blue-coated cavalry on desert buttes an array of stoic Indian portrayals by Loretta Young, James Cagney and others Indians as ruthless killers ¾with a disproportionate focus on Apaches Indians as faithful companions ¾The Lone Ranger and Tonto and Indians as fantasy fulfillment ¾nubile Indian maidens, dangerous, elusive femme fatales and fearsome, virile braves.  Through October 2002.

The Museum is located three miles north of historic downtown Flagstaff on Highway 180 and is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Also at MNA: A new media-based interactive experience designed to accompany the modern Hopi kiva mural by artists Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie that recreates ancient stories of emergence and traditional Hopi life opened July 5.  A digital touch-screen interpretation allows the visitor to experience a virtual tour of MNA's modern kiva mural.   The interpretation in the Kiva Gallery represents the first stages of exhibition work in a new partnership between MNA and Yavapai College's Sedona Center for Arts and Technology. MNA's new Manager of Exhibitions, Paul M. Legris, is working directly with Yavapai College's General Manager, Jodie S. Filardo and Director of Digital Media Arts Program, Eduard Uzemickis.

Congratulations to Bob Bauver on his new book on Navajo and Pueblo jewelry and metalwork, "Masterworks and Eccentricities: The Druckman Collection," edited by John Krenna and published by Four Winds Publishing

ATADA Grants Received and Appreciated

Education and Museum Committee Chair Bob Bauver sent the Newsletter copies of letters from Barbara Thomas of Newcomb High School on the Navajo Reservation thanking ATADA for our $1,000 donation to the school's weaving program, and from Dennis Murphy, board president of Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Massachusetts, thanking ATADA for our $1,000 donation. 

Here is the text of Barbara Thomas's letter:

I would like to thank you on behalf of our student at Newcomb High.  We have been pleasantly surprised at the support our weaving program has received from the students, the school, the parents, the community, and many benefactors such as you.  Your generous donation of $1,000 is the largest gift we have received and we appreciate it so much.

Our weaving program is growing every year.  Two years ago it started when I took a weaving class at the UNM Gallup campus.  Some of the girls in my art class decided they wanted to weave too, so I would come to school every Monday and tell them what I had learned on Saturday.  It was fun and several wanted to take weaving as a class the next year so we started a class of nothing but weaving.  It was successful, so this year we added a class and Mark Winter helped me find Rose Blueeyes to help us with the finer points.  The quality of the rugs has really gone up and now she is teaching to card wool and spin it in the traditional way.  We even went on two field trips to shear sheep.  The sheep's owners gave us the wool for helping them shear, and the students enjoyed it very much, though it was a lot of work.  We hope to continue this project and see it grow in the future.  It is very satisfying to see the students continuing their tradition, and they also have a lot of pride and satisfaction in themselves.  The older people in the community are very proud of them also as many people here have not continued this tradition and there is concern that eventually no one will weave anymore.  We hope our project will be part of a solution to that concern.

Thank you again. 

Sincerely,

Barbara Thomas

And here is the text of Dennis Murphy's letter:

"On behalf of the Fruitlands Board of Trustees, I would like to thank you for your most generous donations of $1,000 in support of the Native American collection.

"Our new Indian Museum exhibit Objects & Meaning is a resounding success.  Members and visitors have made it a point to tell me, "This exceeded our expectations and the exhibit was beautifully presented" and "The voices add such depth while inviting us to respond also."  Mike Volmar continues to offer creative solutions - from the interpretive kiosk to improved storage - that allow us to maximize the reach of this important and popular collection.

"Again, thank you for your generous support of Fruitlands Native American collection.

"Sincerely yours,

"Dennis F. Murphy III, President

"Board of Trustees

Mr. Murphy added a hand-written note next to his signature: "The most precious gifts are unexpected."  Editor's note: The Fruitlands Museums displays an ATADA logo on its website, www.fruitlands.org.

Norman Hurst sent the Newsletter a variety of e-mails.  Among them was this obituary from the Honolulu Star Bulletin by Diana Leone:

"Leo Fortess, known for collecting Pacific artifacts, died Feb. 17 at St. Francis Hospital after a long illness. He was 84.  Fortess, born and raised in Chicago, arrived in Hawaii in 1941 on the 76-foot schooner Chance, which he and his wife, Lillian, and two other couples with little previous sailing experience, piloted from New York to Hawaii via the Panama Canal, said his son, Eric.

Fortess began collecting Polynesian artifacts as the Chance passed through the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti in 1940 through 1941, an interest that he maintained the rest of his life.

"At the time of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Fortess was a draftsman for Contractors for the Pacific Naval Air Bases, his son said. He was off-duty that Sunday, but shot rolls of still and movie footage of the attack aftermath, which was later confiscated by military authorities and was never recovered, Eric Fortess said.

"After the war, Fortess sold photo equipment retail and wholesale, 'but his real interest was Pacific Island cultures,' Eric Fortess said. Portions of his collection have been donated to the Honolulu Academy of the Arts.

"'I have a smile on my face as I'm saying this,' said daughter Karel Cornwell. 'When I was growing up, dad was so into the culture. Around the house he wore a pareo. I grew up thinking he was Hawaiian.' His ancestors were actually Spanish Jews, she said.

.Fortess served as one of the few non-academic presidents of the Anthropological Society of Hawaii and was a life member of the Bishop Museum and Honolulu Academy of the Arts.

"The " self-taught" Fortess proposed the use of the then-new carbon-14 dating technology to Dr. Kenneth Emory of the Bishop Museum, Eric Fortess said.  Emory and Fortess submitted materials from the Kuliouou cave shelter for

the first carbon-14 date in the Pacific."

Another e-mail from Norman, this one a copy of an announcement from Tom Lentz, Director of the International Art Museums Division

"It is with deep regret that I announce the retirement of a longtime colleague.  Roz Walker, director of the National Museum of African Art, has decided to take early retirement, effective June 28, 2002.

"As you may know, health issues have recently demanded her energy and attention.  Now, with the support of her family and colleagues, she has decided to devote herself exclusively to her own health and to making a full recovery.

"In the course of 21 years at the museum, five as director, Roz has made lasting contributions to the Smithsonian.  Under her stewardship, NMAFA has refined and strengthened its growing collections and produced more in-house exhibitions than ever before.

"An acknowledged expert in the art of Nigeria, she was directly responsible for two recent important exhibitions, 'Olowe of Ise: A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings' (1998) and 'Identity of the Sacred: Two Shrine Figures from Nigeria' (2001).

"Of equal importance is the fact that Roz championed the notion that contemporary African art can hold as much appeal as traditional works.  She opened the doors to the first permanent gallery devoted to modern and contemporary African art and brought on the museum's first curator in that field.  Roz is also credited with the creation of the museum's first development office and launched its first-ever traveling exhibitions.

"Secretary Small and I regretfully accept Roz' decision to retire.  We hope all of you will join us in wishing her well."

More from Norman, this reprinted from the Native Americas Journal:

"From Dependency to Development: Alternatives for Indian Country" by Valerie Taliman". Searching for alternatives, [Larry] Emerson learned about
microenterprise development efforts fostered by First Nations Development Institute, a national Native American economic development organization committed to Native control of tribal assets. Since its formation in 1980, First Nations has been working with Native people to help build culturally appropriate development using local resources and Native cultural knowledge. "After visiting with the staff of First Nations in their Fredericksburg, Va., headquarters, Emerson liked what he heard: concepts that included community empowerment, culturally relevant economic approaches and local people negotiating change from within the community. He went back to Shiprock and began organizing community meetings to explore how this approach could work in his community.


"'I had known all along that people sell the things they make, like quilts, bread, Indian foods and farm produce,' Emerson said. 'A lot of them do arts and crafts. Some work independently in other ways, irrigating farms for each other, baby-sitting, hauling wood and coal or weaving. In Shiprock, most of the businesses are non-Indian owned but they employ Indians. They are the formal private sector. We looked at the number of businesses in Shiprock. There were 45, and about 35 were owned by non-Indian people.'

"Emerson looked at the informal sector and saw many Navajo
microenterprises at work in the local economy. Working with First Nations, he surveyed 120 families and found that 70 percent had one or more family members who were informal microentrepreneurs. (more at http://www.nativeamericas.com)

Another e-mail forwarded from Norman:

"Daniel de Coppet died suddenly on the 2oth of March 2002. He was a professor at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. His work on the 'Are'Are of Malaita, in the Salomon Islands, has had a wide influence in the field of Melanesian studies. His main concerns were with exchange, rituals, and the
nature and circulation of pearl-shell money.

"Simultaneously, he undertook a comparative project of wide scope, inspired by Louis Dumont, concerning, on the one hand, Melanesia, and in general holistic societies and, on the other, the individualistic West. In recent past, he was working, within this framework, on the distinction between power and authority
and on monetary systems.

"In the profession, Daniel de Coppet was a fighter for anthropology. He closely supervised numerous students who have become professionals. He founded the ERASME institute of the CNRS, which he headed for twelve years, and he
co-founded the European Association of Social Anthropology. Lately he was fighting against the destruction of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, where French anthropology originated."
    -- André Iteanu, CNRS-Paris

More from Norman, this from Native Americas Journal:
 

"On the eastern edge of Lima, Peru, thousands of Inca mummies, as many as 15,000, are being unearthed. The discovery of the 500-year-old burial site is being hailed as the 'most significant in the history of archeology' in the western hemisphere. But, is this archeological event desecration on a massive scale? The Quechua of Peru, the present-day descendants of the Inca people, have ceremonies for this type of event and will likely be heard over time.

"In 1996, with the 1990 Native Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the remains of 13 Quechua were returned to Peru for reburial. NAGPRA overturned 200 years of disrespectful treatment of Native remains and allowed for the reburial of remains by the nearest relative.

"In the Fall 1997 issue of Native Americas, 'To Receive the Ancestors: A Peruvian Repatriation,' you can read of the 1996 repatriation of Quachua remains and the process that led to NAGPRA.
 

Another e-mail forwarded by Norman:

From David Norden in Antwerp at http://www.african-antiques.com:

"At the Bruneaf show in Brussels, some important gold objects from Tambaran Gallery and three objects from Kevin Conru were stolen . Please report any information you have that could help us to find them."

Tambaran lost one gold Ashanti Ram Ring, a two-part very large Ashanti gold bracelet, one "spootnik" Ashanti gold ring, one large Java green stone and gold ring, one Carnelian gold ring with orange stone and animal (horse? ) carved on it, one Persian gold and turquoise ring, two gold ear ornaments, one Ashanti woven heavy bracelet with 2 knobs and granulations all around and one Kutch Nose ornament with a new stick pin to make it a brooch.

Kevin Conru lost a Dogon wood statue provenance "Han Coray" # 11 and published in CONRU catalogue, #1, an Easter Island lizard wood figure, MOKO, a Senufo seated female wood figure from Oetker Collection, published in CONRU catalogue #12.

Norman forwarded this e-mail froma United Nations release dated June 17:

"ENDANGERED SPECIES: 54 Amendments to CITES List Proposed:

"The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species yesterday announced it has received 54 proposals to amend its lists of species subject to trade controls and prohibitions.  Willem Wijnstekers, the convention's secretary general, said many of the proposals raise the issue of 'what role CITES should play regarding commercially valuable fish and timber species and the kinds of incentives that local communities will need to continue protecting the wildlife that surrounds them.'

"The U.N. Environment Program said proposals for tougher regulations on two species of toothfish, or Chilean sea bass, raise the issue of CITES' role regarding valuable and heavily traded fish stocks and its relationship to regional fisheries agreements, the Food and Agriculture Organization and
other international regimes.  Another high-profile issue is African elephants:  India and Kenya proposed that the elephants be subject to tougher CITES regulations, while Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa called for a one-time sale of existing ivory stocks, saying local communities and conservation programs would benefit.

"Most countries sought lighter trade regulations.  Cuba proposed the sale of hawksbill turtle shells from existing legal stockpiles, and Japan proposed greater national control in monitoring catches and trade of most Northern Hemisphere populations of minke whales and a Pacific population of Bryde's whales.  Argentina, Bolivia and Chile proposed the expansion of trade in fine silky wool sheared from live vicunas to include a number of additional vicuna populations.

"The U.N. panel will issue comments on the proposals next month, and the convention's 158 member countries will meet in Santiago Nov. 3-15 to make final decisions (U.N. release, June 17).

 

A May 14 e-mail from Ramona Morris:

News Flash!

On Apr. 9, 2002, the Bilateral Agreement on Archaeological &Ethnological Materials between the US and Canada expired and was not renewed.  It was announced in a one line notice on a chart on the CPAC website, http://exchanges.state.gov/education/culprop    Thanks to everyone for a job well done!

And another e-mail from Ramona:

Those who read Elia's account of the antiquities trade In his article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2002, should be aware that he has his own agenda as a professional archaeologist.  Painting all dealers as "sleazy" with his broad brush and attempting to discredit all dealers and collectors of antiquities is Elia's way of staking his group's sole claim to the territory.

Many of the objects in the trade have a long collection history. Those objects were not "smuggled and looted."  The laws against the buying and selling of antiquities are a modern phenomenon.  What we perceive as "looting" today was the forefront of archaeology a century ago.  Cultural sites have been menaced with looting and destruction from time immemorial, but we now have international laws for their protection.  Collectors, dealers  and museums need fear the risk of search and seizure only if they have broken those laws.  Isolated incidents of deception or wrongdoing do not make a trend, nor is collecting illegal.  Rather than generally encouraging looting, as Elia suggests, art dealers organizations were instrumental in establishing the Art Loss Registry to help track these very objects.

Elia has also said the "private collecting of unprovenanced antiquities is now widely regarded as selfish and destructive rather than as a safeguarding of ancient art" and mentions "the trade's cavalier disregard for cultural heritage."  One of the most significant occurrences in the reconstruction of the history of the New World has been made not by archaeologists but by linguists who discovered how to read and translate the hieroglyphic writing of the Maya.  They have given us hundreds of years of detailed Mayan history as recorded on their monuments and written on their ceramics.  The linguists responsible for this breakthrough have made a point of thanking the many collectors and dealers who made their "unprovenanced" objects available for study, and condemning those archaeologists' obstructive attitude that held these objects had no scientific value. (Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe, Thames & Hudson, 1992) Great breakthroughs are seldom the result of tunnel vision (Galileo being both the exception and the rule).  Elia's account appears to be more a case of grandstanding rather than imparting information.

The Diné and the Churro

The remarkable past and uncertain future of Navajo-Churro sheep: a history, proposal and program by Carol Snyder Halberstadt, co-founder and coordinator, Black Mesa Weavers for Life and Land.
 In January 2002, a Navajo weaving, circa 1860, was appraised on national television for $350,000/$500,000. At an "Antiques Roadshow" program in Tucson, Arizona, a striped blanket that had been kept folded by its owner over the back of a chair was identified as an early Navajo "chief's blanket." Powerful, wonderfully balanced striped designs woven on vertical looms are among the earliest Diné (Navajo) wearing blankets, and the extraordinary "chief's blankets" were highly valued in trade by other American Indian tribes.

Many dealers and collectors are familiar with the high prices regularly reached at auction by even torn, worn, stained, and frazzled old "chief blankets." Some dealers and collectors, however, may not know that today the same quality of rare churro wool found in this half million dollar 150-year-old blanket is being bred, shorn, washed, carded, spun, dyed, and handwoven on the same kind of vertical loom by the Diné of Black Mesa, Arizona. The Spanish introduced the ancient Iberian breed of churra sheep to the southwest around 400 years ago, but the art of weaving -- using both cotton and wild mountain sheep wool -- had long been practiced by both the Pueblo and Navajo Indians. The Navajo quickly adopted and developed the Spanish churra into the distinctive breed of Navajo-Churro sheep whose fleece is one of the finest weaving wools in the world-long, lustrous, and low in grease. Sacred to the Diné and at the core of their culture and economy, "the old-time Navajo sheep" produce an amazing range of natural colors and a white fleece of remarkable purity that takes both vegetal and commercial dyes with great clarity and depth.

Unique to the Americas and internationally recognized as a rare domestic breed, the Navajo-Churro sheep is an impressive animal -- hardy, intelligent, strong, and adaptable-able to survive and thrive in harsh environments, and highly suited for sustainable livestock development in arid ecosystems such as the American southwest. Not only is their fleece of unique quality, their meat is leaner and significantly lower in fat than other domesticated sheep breeds. Some have four horns, a very rare trait among sheep, and one of the characteristics that marked them as sacred to the Diné.

The Diné had welcomed the churro as a gift from the Holy People. Diné flocks and weaving arts flourished in a homeland bounded by four sacred mountains to the north, east, south, and west-until 1863. In that year, Kit Carson led the U.S. Army in attacks that decimated Diné herds and destroyed their crops and orchards. About 8,000 Diné endured the Long Walk to exile at Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico, hundreds of miles from their homeland. Some Diné were able to hide from the soldiers and
remained with their remnant herds in the deep canyons of remote places such as Black Mesa. Internment at Fort Sumner was a catastrophe and thousands died.

When the survivors of the Long Walk and the exile were finally allowed to return to a portion of their homeland in 1868, they rebuilt their lives, their culture, and their herds. In later waves of  "stock reductions" ordered by the U.S. government in the 1930s and 1970s, hundreds of thousands of churro sheep were slaughtered. Yet, the breed endured and today's churro-descended from those remnant flocks hidden in places such as Black Mesa and Monument Valley-can now flourish anew. The future of the churro on Black Mesa, however, is still not secure.


The Black Mesa region once supported about 20,000 Diné and about 10,000 Hopi. The land also supported as many as 200,000 or more mainly churro sheep raised by the Diné, as well as Hopi and Diné fruit orchards and fields of corn, beans, melons, and squash. In 1974, the fence that bisected the land created Navajo Partitioned Land (NPL) and Hopi Partitioned Land (HPL), disrupting traditional grazing patterns and resulting in a major government-imposed stock reduction to the possibly 2,900 or so Diné livestock on HPL today, of which only about 2,300 are permitted.

Since 1974, about 15,000 Diné have been relocated from their ancestral homes. In 1996, the Accommodation Agreement passed by Congress was intended to make life possible for the remaining traditional Diné-more than 2,000 people-and their livestock. This law has yet to be workable. An enormous step toward making it workable would be to preserve the churro on Black Mesa and the people whose way of life gave the Navajo-Churro to the world.

In 2001, the permit allocations for the Diné living on HPL were only 2,399 sheep units. This reduction from even the limit of 2,800 sheep units (which is the maximum allowed to HPL Diné under the 1996 Accommodation Agreement) has been in effect for the past two-to-three years because of drought and "range management" requirements. Yet, there would be more water if the drinking water aquifer were not being over-pumped to transport coal there would be more forage if range management
processes were put into place that took account of traditional grazing practices and knowledge together with advanced scientific knowhow. The most recent range management study was done in 1995. It is time for a new study.

Snow and rainfall in 2000 and 2001 were good (although the drought seems to have returned this year) and there is room on Black Mesa for the few "unpermitted" churro sheep that the Diné own in small subsistence herds -- churro sheep that may be the only carriers of a rare genetic heritage. There are humane and rational ways to manage a healthy range and also enable the Black Mesa Diné to keep their rare and endangered sheep. This could be a win-win situation for everyone who cares about the health and genetic diversity of a very special kind of sheep and the lifeways of those who treasure and care for them.

Black Mesa Weavers for Life and Land began in 1999 as a nonprofit cooperative association. Our purpose is to better the economic and social conditions of the Black Mesa Diné through preservation of traditional lifeways based on sheepherding and the sale of their products-primarily churro wool and weavings. We ensure that fair market prices are paid to the weavers and wool growers. Faced with the problems of economic and cultural survival in a fragile and threatened ecosystem, our strategy is based on development of local communities and the expansion of their traditional economy within the contemporary marketplace. We are a Special Project of Cultural Survival, an organization founded in 1972 to support the cultural autonomy of indigenous peoples and the diversity of their ecosystems worldwide. We
are also working with the International Human Rights Advocacy Center in Denver, Colorado.

We have formed relationships and partnerships with other groups working to develop markets and value-added products for the Navajo-Churro breed, to protect and conserve it, and to maintain its genetic diversity. Dr. Lyle McNeal, founder of the Navajo Sheep Project, has been crucial to the restoration of this endangered breed. In the 1970s, he collected breeding stock from the Diné of Black Mesa and elsewhere among the Navajo, stock of genetic diversity that was preserved and nurtured by the Diné from the original churro developed hundreds of years ago. For the past three decades, Dr. McNeal has returned new breeding stock from these sources to the Diné of Black Mesa and throughout the Navajo Nation.

In June 2001, we took part in a networking forum at the annual "Sheep Is Life" celebration, focused on the churro, held at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona. In July 2001, we launched a program to identify and register all Navajo-Churro sheep on Black Mesa, which can be expanded throughout the Navajo Nation. Together with the ongoing sales of wool and weavings, this is a crucial step toward cultural and economic development by preserving traditional Diné lifeways. The Black Mesa churro registry process has been launched under the auspices of the Navajo-Churro Sheep Association (N-CSA) and with the assistance and collaboration of the Navajo Sheep Project and America Livestock Breeds Conservancy. With the permission and participation of each livestock owner we are in the process of identifying, registering, and thus helping to conserve and protect this remarkable breed for generations to come.

This June, we filled our first large order for up to 3,500 pounds of raw churro wool-about 500-550 fleece. The fleece was   trucked by the buyer to a processing plant in Canada and will be returning to outlets in the Navajo Nation for sale. Weavers who bring wool to sell may purchase up to 10 pounds of yarn at cost after it is processed. The yarn will be available in three sizes of warp and
size two weft in six blended natural colors.

This sale is the next step in developing the market for Diné churro wool, which we began last year, and in bringing its processing back home to the Diné. This is not planned as a one-time buy, but the first of annual sales. It will offer an alternative to the commercial yarn now being marketed to the weavers by making available high-quality churro warp and weft yarn for weavers to buy and use throughout the Navajo Nation. We look forward to the eventual reintroduction of churro wool processing in Dinetah.

This will also be an opportunity to begin a more accurate count of the churro sheep in Black Mesa and vicinity and to continue to enroll them in the N-CSA registry. This large order is an important recognition of the value of Diné-bred churro wool, which is related to the quality of the range where the sheep graze, the water they drink, and the care they receive. We hope this sale will give further impetus to the preservation of this very special breed of sheep on Black Mesa and throughout the Navajo Nation, and support the unique quality of the traditional Diné weaving heritage that relies on churro wool.

For more information, contact Carol Snyder Halberstadt, co-founder and coordinator, Black Mesa Weavers for Life and Land / POB 543, Newton, MA 02456.  Email: carol@migrations.com / www.migrations.com © 2002 Carol Snyder Halberstadt. All rights reserved.

Tlingit Basket Weaver Video on YouTube - E-mail from Marcy Burns

Hi Arch and Alice

There is a 7 minute video of Teri Rofkar, a Tlingit weaver and also an anthropologist, who was in the storerooms of U of PA Museum last fall, reacting to some of the Tlingit baskets in their collection. It is really interesting and I think many people would be interested in knowing about it.

They have released it on utube and they gave me permission to send it to ATADA. No problems...it is already in the public domain. I think we should just mention that it was filmed at U of PA Museum last fall. The museum has since received a grant for Teri to spend several months at the Museum studying their Tlingit baskets, with a Tlingit basketry exhibit emerging from her studies. They will have an expanded, updated video in the museum with the exhibit when it occurs.

(from the editor - here is the museum's description of the video)


Teri Rofkar and the Penn Museum’s Tlingit Basket Collection

This video was created from footage taken in the Summer of 2007 when Teri Rofkar, a nationally recognized Tlingit weaver and basketmaker, visited the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to work with the American Section on a grant proposal which was subsequently submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant was awarded in May, 2008. This grant will allow the Museum to bring Teri to Philadelphia for a residency of two months in the fall of this year to study our collection of 400 Tlingit baskets and produce a catalogue of the collection with every basket imaged (many in 3-D). This will be the first catalogue authored by a Native American basketmaker focused on a major, but relatively unknown, collection of baskets from her tradition. Hopefully, it will became a model that other institutions will follow.

The video shows Teri and Kate Cuffari, a Kress Foundation Conservation Fellow who completed a conservation survey of the Museum’s 3,300 North American baskets, in American Section storage looking at a small selection of Tlingit baskets.

I think we should post a link to the video. It is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN9F_zzesy4

If this link does not work, then try typing "Tlingit Weaver" into the YouTube search engine.

I also think we should mention it in our next newsletter.

Thanks,

Marcy

Marcy Burns Schillay
Marcy Burns American Indian Arts LLC,
525 East 72nd Street, 26G
NY, NY 10021,
212-439-9257,
www.marcyburns.com

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