The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-03-19
Frederic Haslkin's Lett,
The SaUase's Saluation

ilised man could even ,..,,
thing about the art Of Twin, 'se
the savage. Such a thourhte nm
have been considered insane ! .osla
GRAFTON ago. Today II i, ga
regarded a. mildly hsretical ''s's
Tho new and thriving scienc. :.
anthropology also comes - q
support Of the artist in this .o ,ss
tention. The anthropolorist.' s sOa.
been studying primitive man . .,.s
unusual zeal. They ana ne. ny !!
some respects At least he ma, :.
considered the superior Of the ' c;s
i ii man. For instance, the min,
tive man has a better sen. s.ia :,
beauty. His pottery, his veavin. "
his dwellings, his dances, his ce,s
monies, are all picturesque az,
often Of high artistic merit. ~
civilization the real appreciation :,
beauty seems to be limited IN
very few. The majority Of us h,,s
lost all taste. The things We u.s
and wear, the houses We live II
our dances, and ceremonies are -.
the most part ugly and often even ~,
grotesque. wa
Nose Rings and Hobble Skim
One woman scientist, Elsie Clev,
Parsons, has gone still further and
shown that most Of the queer n.
liefs. customs, taboos and super.
stitions Of primitive life, which va
ridicule. survive in some form in
civilization. She has shown tha,
the hobble skirt is very near re.
lation to the nose ring. Some q,
our lively parties" are savage or.
gies with little changed except the
costumes. Many. if not most Of
our politicians are medicine man
and the heap big medicine thew
offer US is no better than the done
the tribal shamans hand out.
In a word there is reason to sus-
pect that We are not as far ahead
Of the savages as we thought We
were. The savages seem to have
suspected this all along. They
have chung to their own way Of
life and rejected our civilization
with the utmost determination.
An excellent example Of the
whole process Is afforded by the
Pueblo Indians of our own south
west. The Spaniards began try
ing to ciyilize them nearly 500
,, years ago. They toiled unremit-
tingly for several centuries and
then the Yankees took up the good
work. The Pueblos staged one big
revolt and drove all the white men
out of the country, but they were
not good fighters and ultimately
they settled down to passive re.
sistance. It has been astonishing.
ly. successful. After four or five
centuries Of hard work by two
! great civilized nations, the Pueblo
is in all essentials unchanged. Al
though a church stands in every
pueblo, the Pueblo Indian still wor.
ships his primitive gods. Although
a school stands there too, he re-
mains gloriously ignorant Of books
He still weaves and wears his owr
/ blankets, builds his own house
makes his own pottery, cultivate
! the ground and hunts the will
things as his fathers did. Tao
Pueblo in New Mexico today is jus
as Coronado described it In tn
18th century.
! Now artists have begun to noe
to that vicinity and there is a grow
ing movement to let the Pueblo b
as he is, for his own sake, and 10
the sake Of art. The artists an
the Indians get along admirably tt
gether. Both Of them have a fin
appreciation of color and Of natul
al beauty and Of the mystery
nature. Both Of them dislike n
restraints and the ugliness Of civi
ization. 1t may be that after 30
diers. missionaries and educator
have failed, the artist will be u
savage's salvation.