Evening star., 1922-09-17
AS l See 1t
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toons Of turkey feathers and
carrying jangling sleigh bells or
rafting gourds. dancing half an
hour at a stretch and chanting
words perhaps as foolish as Peggy
ONeil.
The white man has no talent for
becoming an Indian, and the
Pueblo Indians would make a sad
spectacle sitting around luncheon
table with the Rotarians or HI
wants in two-plece ready-made
suits. beating upon the table with
drumsticks, chanting their archaiS
tribal hymns. 1t is just as hard ana
twice as wicked to try to make a
white man out of an Indian as IL
is TO make an Indian out OF
white man.
And that statement leads us
sQuarely up to one Of the major
problems of this whole southwest,
where the Indian and his cousin,
the Mexican. make a majority o!
the population and are dominated
largely by the Spaniard. What are
we going to do with the noble
red man and the forest and his
native cousin. who is also cousin
to the proud Castilian? Are they
To he white men and function as
part of our political, social ana
economic system. or~are theS 10
remain a separate, peculiar ana
more or less dependent people set
in our land, but not part OF our
country?
OF course, there are two opin-
ions about the matter out here
in the southwest. One is that the
Indian Of the desert Is to remain
an Indian; the other is that he IS
TO become a Mason or knight OF
columbus as the case may be, get
a high school education. be good
at the bank on a ninety-day note
pull off his feathers and serve IN
the chamber of commerce as soon
as he can get an automobile. Inc
fiesta was arranged by those who
believed that the old civilization
of the desert, Spanish, native and
Indian. should survive.
* 4 x *
The idea back of the fiesta was
that the customs Of the older peo-
ple were worth considering and
preserving. The fiesta must have
mt A lot of self-respect into the
indian He heard his neighbor ap-
nIauding his dances and the songs
of his Pueblo. He saw men ana
women who~came many hunoreos
Of miles to view the fiesta aston.
fshed with the poetic beauty OF
the Indian ceremonies. Tne IN
dian at the fiesta was proud to oe
an Indian. Similarly the ara
lor HpSfa
written for the occasion put much
emnhasis upon the strong quail
ties of all the participants in the
rise of civilization in the south.
west. The parades, pageants ana
dramatic pieces were designed 10
exalt the noble qualities OF the
Snaniard, the native and the In
dian. The Yankee conqueror, VINO
paid his good money to promote
the show, had the taste to keep
his own notion OF what MAKES
, people great always out OF me
nicture. 1t was spectacle tnat
should have given the average nag
wayer of the middlewest a jump
ing toothache.
Rut one must not be deceived; the
fiesta was not without critics. These
came from two sources; nrst from
The 100 per cent Americans who be-
i;eve that this whole business of
exaiting the savage nonsense OF the
indian is silly and who feel that the
sooner the Spanish national air
ceases to be played the better II
will be for the Constitution and the
nag, These critics believe that the
most encouraging sign Of progress is
the growing per cent OF red-headed
: There critics are Poles apart from