The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-29

ds b not always so simple and oppressed af- fer all. Indeed, here and there he has turned tables on his overmastering broth- CT of the pale face. He is nowadays winning golden coin from his foxy, word- ly over loads-for he is making prehis- toric aboriginal relics. What Is more he is willing to sell them to the erudite and shrewd at fancy prices.
 Henceforth let none think that lazy, smoking, unwashed glum To is a hope less dullard and a sloth. For here is evidence that he knows thing or two about business, and can hustle and scheme, too, when there is money in, sight.
 Idols and household artifacts, supposed to have been dug among the homes of cliff dwellers of pre-Columbian days, are made to order by the carload in Arizona, and New Mexico. Vases and ollas that connoisseurs prize as masterpieces of Americas first potters, in an age long before a Montezuma sat upon the Aztec throne. are fashioned in clay in half dozen pueblos in the territories. Crack ed and broken specimens of plastic art, ascribed to aborigines before the dawn of the Christian era, are made almost daily by Pueblo Indians. Mortars and pastles, carefully counterfeited With the grime and wear of the ages before Co., lumbus sailed from Palos. are chiseled and wrought for the white mans col lection of antiquities
 Maricopa and Hualipi Indians. on the desert wastes of Arizona, create and sell ragged, mouldy remnants of grass-woven sandals, buckles and buckskin mocca- sins and leggings as exhumed relics of race that lived in walled towers through out the Salt River valley several thou sand years ago. Grotesque offices, ill., proportioned jars, crazy implements or the chase, strangely painted warclubs and urns and chiidren's toys, in all the crud- ity and outlandish aesthetlcism of the primitive savages, are regularly manu- factured by squaws to order for curio dealers wherever tourists flock on the Pacific coast and through the west.
 The prehistoric relic industry has come to be a thriving one in almost every In- dian community in Arizona and New Mexico. The Zunis are the prioneers in the prehistoric pottery business. The news of the profit there Is in the manufacture spread to Acoma, thence to Laguna, thence to Isleta, and on to the little pueblos along the Rio Grande and up round about Santa Fe.
 As the industry has grown, 1t has broadened in scope. The Apaches found that their ancient tribal war weapons were in good demand by buyers for curto stores Forthwith the manufacture of old warclubs began. The Hualipis were told of the money there was in making these crude aboriginal weapons by the Apaches After while the Huallpis also had for market & quantity of still older carved clubs which are said to have been dug from among the ruins of the buried Toltec Pompeiis of the Arizona deserts.
 Indian aestheticism has progressed but lad is not difficult for modern to initiate the art of ancestors of countless years ago With little instruction from the white traders and curio dealers, the In- dians have been shown how best to win the eyes of the tourist public-how to make the most turing commercials Of an- cient savage artifices and how to produce the most. incrutable pottery relics of America in its barbarous infancy.
 The Pueblo Indians are especially art full in the manufacture of articles from clay that have the stamp of age and will bear the scrunity of cautious buyers. With smoky fires the grime of ages Is put on a vase made but yesterday. Burial for few weks in damp soil gives dark musty color to clay ef1gy that some squaw molded last week. Chipping away the rude edges of a bowl give. the ap- pearance of use in the first American homes. AS TOT marking the COuHteIIelI relics with clumsy pictures of reptiles. beasts and birds seen on the desert. that is easy. The cruder the art and more incongruous the color. so much more Is the specimen prized as sure-enough artifact of the misty ages. There Is always some connoisseur who will find some strange beauty in it. and some ethnologist may build a convincing theory as to the thought and aspiration of the aboriginal artizan.
 It is on record that even President Roosevelt was beguiled concerning the authenticity of a curio dealers display of prehistoric cliff dwellers pottery when the chief magistrate was in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Williams Arizona, editor tells the story; how the President handled several of the dull red and yellow bowls, scrutinized their quaint markings and travesties of art, all the while commenting upon the wonders of the mysterious artisans of pre-Columbian days, until a post-trader at his elbow boldly told him that not one of the speci- mems was older than a year and had been made to order at either 9sleta or Acoma.
 There is an anecdote current in the