Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-04-17
THE CHILDREN,

only the decorative possibilities of In
dian handiwork; the other is to consider
chiefly the historic and archaeological
side of it.
If, however, you want a genuine col
lection you can hardly hope to make
even the smallest beginning on less
than 800 in money and hours of patient.
Estudy of Indian folklore.
You can get up a very pretty little
corner with one Navajo blanket for a
couch cover at, say, $3.50, and with an
other for a rug at, say, $3.50, and anoth-
er for a hanging at about the same
price. The remainder of your outlay you
can make on a skin or two, some of the
modern pottery and baskets which are
not rare, and are yet cheap and decora-
| tive, and some of the least rare of the
| specimens of beadwork, buckskin gar
ments, feather ornaments, weapons and
utensils.
Your den will be very curious and dec
~orative, but of very little archaeological
| value. No one, however, but al Indian
| collector and yourself will ever know
the difference unless you tell them.
in a shop of exactly the same size and
| of exactly the same decorative quality,
one of which may cost 80 and the other
SIS.
You would do quite as we'll to take the
one at 81; the scientific collector would
take the one at SIS, because it is a rare
specimen, and demonstrates a principle
to him.
There may be two blankets hanging
side by side, one exactly as decorative
as another, and n may cost SIS and the
other SIS.
You may select what you think is a
fairly pretty pot because you think it is
less expensive than the more elaborate
one beside it, and find hat it is $25,
while the more decorative one is only
IS.
You may find two baskets which you
think are just alike, and discover that
one is almost priceless, while the dealer
will give you the other for SO cents.
1t all depends upon the rarity of the
goods. There are some curios which the
Indians can turn out in a few hours, ant
which they do turn out day after day
These you can buy for almost nothing
There are others which it takes then
months to perfect, and which they have
consequently almost stopped making
These you cannot buy for anything less
than extinct curio prices.
In a few years they will stop making
buckskin garments and beads entirely
IN a few more years there will be nj
more pottery or baskets. In a few more
years still there will be no more baskets
There are many things already ex.
tinct. Some blankets are extinct. Aztec
pottery is extinct, and many basket.
are extinct.
It's all very well to make a collection
of baskets from all the tribes, but the1
you must make a collection of the va
rious baskets of each individual tribe
For instance, the Moquis have a baske
which is used only for the sacred mea
for the sacrifice at the Moqui smok,
dance, and dozens of other baskets, eacl
one of which is used only for one specia
purpose. You will have to make a col
lection of all of these.
And so it goes. Each branch of you
collection has hundreds of ramifications
which, to be thorough, you must pursue
And then when you have done all this
there is yet the wide range of weapon.
and implements, and feather ornaments
and buckskin garments, and hundreds
of odds and ends for you to cover.
Do you think you a do it?
\ Not unless you love it.
IF you are not willing to spend hours
of study, days of labor in excavation
and trading, months of travel, and thou
sands of dollars upon 1t, you had bette