Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-12

| or white men married to Indian women.
The fruit raised is equal to that of the
Bitter Root valley. Most of the farm
ers make fair living. but they are so
far from railroad that they have no
market for their produce. railroad
~ TAXED OF. to connect Kalispell with
the Northern Pacific In some ways
this would, of course, be fine thing
Tor the farmers of Mission valley. but
again, 1t would make the land much
more valuable and lead to it's being
coveted by the whites. and the Indians
would then have to leave Mission VAL
ley, as they did the Bitter Root
AFTER the two papers Mrs. Green
MAJORS gave a little talk on Indian
baskets and their manufacture. She ex-
planned the way they were made and
told how they We're colored and the
different grasses and roots used, She
showed the baskets made Of the maiden
hair fern stems glossy black, the red
or the poison oak roots, grasses beached
white and those dyed with the red of the
strawberry and other fruits. She showed
now all the stitches We're counted uni
lormity being the first thing aimed for,
beauty of decoration the second She
described how they We're woven while
wet and would hold water.
She had baskets to illustrate her re-
marks. of every kind and size Mrs.
Majors explained why baskets were be-
coming so rare. In olden days every
Indian maiden took as her marriage
doWry, these baskets and as it takes
from SIX months to two years to make
one 1t was an enormous task. Today the
Indian girls find it much easier to use
tin cans for cooking and other purposes
ana do so. Consequently their mothers
and grand mothers do not teach them
the art of basket weaving and it is dying
out rapidly. Mrs. Majors showed how
all the designs We're taken from nature,
from objects the Indians We're most ia
miliar WITH Some of them We're really
classical.
With the aid of a winnowing basket
Mrs. Majors showed how the corn and
wheat was winnowed. Then she used
the basket in which the cereals were
ground to flour and meal. The largest
basket of all was the one in which the
meal was cooked. A number of cold
stones are put in to prevent the burning
of the basket Then it is half filled with
meal and water and red hot stones
dropped in. Mrs. Majors said that one
design was exactly like the ricraclS braid
used by women today for trimming va
rious garments. The serpentine pattern,
one handsome one exactly copying the
back of a damondback RATHER, We're on
the baskets. Others showed an arrow
head design. Some We're made by the
Tulare Indians of California and some
by the Tehachipi Indians. Others by
Nevada, Utah. etc. Mrs. Majors consid-
ers the work of the California Indians
by far the finest
One basket represented mountains in
the design. Mrs. Majors had a water
bottle made by Northern California In
dams representing pine trees in the de-
sign. There was a pretty plate, a
trinket basket and a squaw basket.
The. water bottle was made by the Piute
Indians of Idaho. One basket made by
the Washoe Indians Mrs Majors said
would be regarded by the collector with
enVious eyes, it was so old. 1t was a
cooking basket and when sent to Mrs.
Majors meal adhered to the sides yet.
Mrs. Majors brought out the fact that
the same principle underlies the basket
work in Indians all over the world. And
it is the same as with the civilized races.
repetition of design. She pointed out
the carpet and the wall paper to illus
trate, all repetition of the same figure
or design. Mrs. Majors showed a hand
! some pottery water jug and said that
| pottery making was fast replacing the
basket making: it is done as was the
| basket weaving, entirely by the squaws.
She described the mode of manufacture
ing the pottery, nothing being used to
| mould the clay but the hands and the
little paddle The pottery is baked on
| rocks. but the designs are first painted
| on with a bit of rabbit skin and then
| burned in.
| Mrs. c. w. Paine told of find her
| husband made in the mountains of San
| Jacinto, California. A terrific storm
| came and Mr.. Paine and his companions
| crept in under some rocks and found a
| lot of broken pottery, all very rare, but
with it piece of cloth, differing from
| the three thread cloth of today. being
| possessed of a fourth thread. While
| they knew it must be very rare they did
| not know the extent of their discovery
| until Mr.. Paine's partner visited the
| Smithsonian Institute. He was talking
to the man in charge and he spoke of the
piece of cloth. Immediately he was
shown a piece of cloth sent from South
| America, made by the Indians there and
| number of thousands of years old. Mr..
Paine's partner had a photograph of the
! cloth their party found and they We're
exactly alike in weave, texture and color.
Mrs. w. J. Christie read a letter she
wanted signed officially so it could be
sent to the mayor. 1t called attention
to the unsanitary and general dirty and
neglected condition of the public library,
the auditorium and ante rooms.
Mrs. Sam tombstone gave an interest
ing little talk on the Indians of Fort
Peck by special request. She gave a
graphic description of the schools there,
! the life in general. She told of issue
day and how the rations and beef were
given out. She described the dressmak-
ing department and gave a number of
the curious names Indian women bore,
and men too. Mary Sitting Bull and
Johnny in White Feathers. Rushing At
ter the Grow. etc. She thought the sys-
tenn of educating the children very much