The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, d. C.
SHALL THE PUEBLOS BE
CIVILIZED?


| Washington, D. c., Jan. 21.-Should
the Pueblo Indians of the southwest,
the only Indians in the United States
| who live as their forefatherS did, be
converted into\ good American farm
ers, cowboys, cooks and housemaids,
or should they be allowed to go their
own picturesque way, so that their
native arts and customs will be pre-
served unchanged?
This question threatens to become
| an issue, with earnest supporters on
both sides Never, since we got done
fighting Indians has there been so
much interest in them as today. This
interest originates and centers in ar
tistic and scientific circles, but is
shared to great extent by the general
dency to patronize Indian art and to
buy pictures of Indians and books
about them.
All of the American Indians except
the Pueblos are either civilized, on the
road to civilization, extinct or on the
road to extinction. Intermarriage with
the whites or with Mexicans is rapidly
wiping them out as distinct race in
the United States. But the Pueblos
are in different case. There are seven
or eight thousand OF them, and they
live in some twenty-odd towns, called
Pueblos, in New Mexico and Arizona.
! Moreover, they have been living in
|
them, for centuries During all those
centuries, they have lived much as
they live today. The Spaniards con-
quered them, and made them accept
the Christian faith. But they retained
also their heather faith. unim paired.
They are perhaps the only people on
earth which processes two religions
without any difficulty or embarrass-
ment. And their lives are to an
amazing extent unchanged. Not only
are their houses similar to those they
lived In when Coronado came to Taos
IN the sixteenth century; they are often
the very same houses. Their clothing
mas been modified a little in material,
but not much in color scheme or gem
eral appearance. They still preserve
all OF their tribal customs as to mar
4. riage, burial and tribal rule Altho
they never go to war. they still dance
a'war dance, and altho the buffalo and
the antelope have vanished. they still
nave dances in honor of these crea-
lures, at which buffalo and anteIone
robes many decades old are used.
Ihey are the greatest conservatives on
earth- when it comes to resisting
change. the stand-pat Republicans
fh1eht take lessons from them.
Naturally. they are very pictur-
esque. They are of immense interest
to artists and scientists and writer's
large colony of such persons has
oeen formed at Santa Fe, y. M.
which is in the heart of the Pueblo
country, and another one has been
formed at Taos. Pictures of the
Pueblos painted in these places are
now to be seen in all of the principal
eastern galleries, and many of the
great eastern museums have repre-
sentatives in the southwest
These scientists and artists hate to
q III
pair the picturesQueness of the In
dian. Not only do they wish to keep
MIN unspoiled as a subject for study
and art but they assert that he has
an art of his own which is well worth
preserving. and which will be lost if
he is civilized. <The Indians make
pottery. baskets and blankets. which
are beautiful. and are now to be seen
in all parts of the country Authori-
ties say that some of this art, espe-
cially the pottery and the blankets. is
tho best of is kind that is being
done in the United States today. They
say it is wrong and foolish to convert
the Indian to our civilization, when
he has civilization of his own which
IS capable OF producing more beauti-
full objects of art than ours
Furthermore. they argue that the
Indian has a right to his own life If
the rights of small nations and of op-
pressed people. for which we are sup
posed to have gone TO war. mean any
thing at all. they mean that the Pueblo
should be allowed to live his own life
That is what he wants to do He does
not welcome change and does not pre-
tend to. He is extremely peaceful and
will not fight with anybody He is
tgood- and obliging. and is al
ways willing to pose for an artist, or
toilet linguist explore the inside of
his mouth to see how he talks For a
tactful archaeologist he will tell over
the folk tales which have come down
to him from his forefathers But he
does not care for modern agricultural
methods. He does not want to give up
see his sons and daughters lured away
from the ancestral Pueblo to become
servants in towns
Each of these Indian villages, argue
the advocates of the leave-them-aIone
policy. is little nation, with life of
its own to which it has just as good a
right as any other little nation. The
Pueblos are a distinctive people, and
have right to remain so If they
choose, which they dc.
The negative in this debate is taken
by Cato Sells. commissioner Of Indian
affairs, and by most il not all of his
agents in the field, who have charge of
the work of educating the Indians.
Mr.. Sells does not pretend to be
primarily a student of Indian art or
of archaeology, but he does claim to
be true friend Of the Indian. And
it must be said on his behalf that he
has taken his job seriously, worked
hard for the welfare of Indians as he
sees it, and accomplished much good.
1t is frankly his ideal to civilize the
Indians, and by this he means to make
them d-component part OF our Amer
lean industrial civilization. He ex-