File:American Indians - first families of the Southwest (1920) (14796115913).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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hose of four centuries ago. The hooting of an owl brings fear to a Pima. He believes that it is a sign ofdeath—that the owl is the messenger carrying the soul from the dying to anotherworld. They never consider marriage binding, husband and wife separating atwill and marrying again at will. The women do all the heavy work, except hunt-ing, plowing and sewing; when the family moves the husband usually rides and thewife walks, carrying a papoose or even a part of the grain she herself has harvested.The grain is threshed by the stamping of horses and winnowed by the women, whoskillfully toss it from flat baskets. Wheat is now their staple crop and in goodyears they sell some to the whites. On reaching market the husband sometimeshas no compunctions about trading the crop and handiwork of the women forarticles for his own personal adornment. The Pima took no scalps. They con-sidered the Apaches as possessed of evil spirits and would not touch them after death. Digitized by IVIicrosoft®
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A DESERT NURSERYPIMA MOTHER AND CHILD Digitized by IVIicrosoft® The Pima Women, Who Make Baskets In basketry the Indian woman has left the best witness of what she could doin handiwork and expression. Originally the baskets were wholly without decor-ation, and so crude as not to entitle them to consideration. They were used tocarry corn, melons, and peppers and the smaller ones were used for holding beans,shelled corn and other coarse materials. The decorative appeared in the work centuries ago, the ancient ruins givingup specimens of delicate weave embellished with geometric and symbolic designs.Figures of human beings, animals and leaves as well were woven in and today thesame designs are followed in the better work. The Pima and Apache originallyused geometric figures in their designs, but of later years the Apache in particularhave combined these with human and animal figures. In weave, material andcoloring the work of the Pima and of the White Mountain Apache is almostidentical.

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