Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-09-05
COMELY SQUAW TALENTED ARTIST:

But the domain of the mind-ah.
that is what we make 1t, and its bounds
are limitless. You look at, say, a moe
casin covered with beads. a basket, a
blanket, or a rug, II say, Isn't 1t
pretty?' with a ~patronizing thought Of
the patience required by the Indian in
making 1T.
You have missed its real signif-
canoe, however. o cannot see tho
story that is told by every detail. nor
do you realize the high conception OF
art which has taught the Indian to
used in his daily life"
Fol- another example, Miss Decora
referred to a cradle made by an In
dian mother. When a white child is
born a cradle is hustled from the
store-one very much like hat in
be rocked. But the indian mother
makes the cradle for her own child,
and into it's decoration weaves her
mother love. her hope, her JOY.
Represents the Head.
The various ornaments represent
the child that is in the cradle.
A round ornament near the top Of
the cradle represents the skull or head
of a child. A long ornament, con-
sisting of two strips of hide connected
by quill wrapped strips in colors. rep
resents the child's hair. AT the lower
part are long quill covered thongs, rep
r~esenting ribs.
Then there are strips to stand for
legs. Red represents blood. black the
hair of youth. white HI OF age. OF
the sticks forming the framework in
side the cradle is peeled, tho
other unpeeled. The unpeeled one de-
notes that the child is yet helpless,
undeveloped; the peeled one hints at
its subsequent more polished condi-
ton.
There are hundreds of these SYM
bolisnls. 1t is impossible in brief space
to explain more than a few.
Some of the most used are the SIM
pie characters denoting a person, the
heart ard lungs. the head, the eye. the
human track and the buffalo track. the
eagle and the thunderbird, the snake
and lizard, the fish, butterfly, cattle
track, mountain, river. spring. etc.
They look so simple, these markings,
and yet one without these centuries
of intuition back of him could not de-
cipher them or make them.
There came a little Arapahoe girl to
the cnool the other day and entered
Miss Decora's class. What can you
make?" she was asked. She replied
that she didn't know.
With Il ~iece of paper and some COL
ored crayons she set to work. and in
a little wniie had made a design for
Il rus, MIiINll Siic DuSiilully SHOW cQ.
She had used neither ruler nor COM
pass-none of these artists stoops to
mechanical aids-and yet she had q
very we'll balanced creation, with its
centerpiece, its border design and its
various strips and sections accurately
drawn.
Found in a Story.
But best of all. Miss Decora dis
covered in it a beautiful story-it was
made up of over a dozen varieties OF
sign writing-and it needed no words
TO tell her what it represented.
1t brought tears to her eyes. for II
told her that the new little pupil al
ready loved her. How did it tell this
The outer border design was made
up of the lightning SYMBOL ziz-zag
line-and the very center contained
the figure of the mythical thunder
bird.
Now, this little pupil was of the
lightning tribe. and Miss Decora is OF
the thunderoird tribe. So the outer de.
sign e~ncompassing the inner one be.
spoke a real love.
Then there is a Pueblo boy who came
and vas old to follow his own natural
inclination. And the first thing he die
was to sit down and draw rapidly, witt
colored crayons, a sort of prehistoric
monster with yellow scales all over it:
body and a great tail forked at the enc
and blue wings and a frightful looking
head with fangs proturding.
About the nearest thing one coult
liken it to would be a Chinese dragon
The boy explained that the scribe o
the Pueblo village where he dwelt hat
once drawn 1t for him. that 1t had beer
painted ages and ages 6 OF the wall
Of a cavern where tribal ceremonie
are held, and that there was a won
derful story about it. But what tina
story is he wouldn't tell-that was tn,
secret of his people.
To the Jamestown exposition Mis-
Decora has taken some examples of tn
work, n to the Pacific slope has sen
others.
v--r