File:American Indians - first families of the Southwest (1920) (14773865904).jpg

Identifier: cu31924028656738 (find matches)
Title: American Indians : first families of the Southwest
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Huckel, John Frederick, 1863-1936 Harvey, Fred
Subjects: Indians of North America
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : F. Harvey
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ng back from those next below, so that the roofs of the lowerhouses formed a sort of front yard for those above. The fire is in a pit in the floor,the smoke finding its way out through an opening in the roof. Corner fire placesare also used, and with the Spaniards came modern improvements, such as doorsand shutters. In the early days the rooms were necessarily small. Transportationof beams was difficult, for horses and beasts of burden were unknown to thePueblo until the Spaniards brought them. Blocks of lava and sandstone werethe materials used in construction of the houses. Often the villages were rectang-ular with open courts, but there was usually little fixed plan of outline. The Indians learned of the wheel from the Spaniards and built their ownvehicles. The wheels of the carreta were usually made from a section of a treetrunk and the whole was constructed from wood, not even nails being used. TheLaguna Pueblo have always been adepts in pottery making. Digitized by IVIicrosoft®
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OLD CARETTALAGUNA, NEW MEXICO Digitized by IVIicrosoft® How the Indian Women Do the Cooking Before the advent of the Spaniards the Indians generally used an oven con-sisting of an excavation in the ground, heated and then filled with food andcovered over. By this method any poisonous foods were made harmless, thestarchy substances becoming saccharine. For winter supplies food was preparedby drying and preserving. The Pueblo carried this art of pit cooking further thanany other Indians. Three hundred years ago when the Spaniards came, theytaught the Indians to build dome-shaped ovens of boughs and twigs plasteredwith adobe clay and those are in common use today. In all cases these ovens areout of doors, thus keeping the interior of the home cool and livable. Some ovensare twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, serving as a co-operative oven for bakingbread for a number of families. The Indians, contrary to general belief, preferred cooked food. In additionto the meats they had vegetables

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