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Arizona and New Mexico Indians. Apache and Mohave.    
 
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THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

ARIZONA INDIANS

The collection from the Apache Indians in the Brooklyn Museum consists of implements for games, dance masks, weapons and basketry. These Indians are skilled in the latter art and trade their products with other tribes.
In addition to the collections already mentioned, the north side of the hall at its eastern end exhibits a model of a triple-walled town near McElino Canon, Colorado, and small cases at intervals down this side of the hall exhibit pottery from cliff and pueblo dwellers of Colorado and Utah, relics from prehistoric Indians of Arizona and from the Mohave, Papago and Maricopa Indians.
 
The mural paintings in this hall of the Brooklyn Museum give a panoramic view of the regions from which the collections came.
The collections from the Indians of the Rio Grande pueblos, exhibited in Room 3, are from the Keres, Tigua, Jemez and Tewa Indians. These collections follow immediately those in Room 4 and complete the series of exhibits from the southwestern tribes.
Laguna is the most recent of the new Mexican pueblos, and its inhabitants are of mixed origin. An impression of its appearance is given by various color sketches.

A collection of prehistoric pottery and other antiquities fromthe indians of Arizona is also included in this hall of the Brooklyn Museum.
Maps, color sketches and other illustrated material are provided as in Room 4, and the mural paintings are landscapes representing the territory.

In the central floor space at the left or southern end of the room are two models, one of the panther statue and enclosure of the Keres Indians near Cochiti, New Mexico. Two life-size images of panthers lie in a stone enclosure near a ruined pueblo. These are the largest images known to have been executed by pueblo Indians, and nothing similar to them and their enclosure has been discovered any-where in the Southwest outside of the territory of the Keres. The images are fetiches of the esoteric group of the hunters. The other model represents the pueblo of Taos, New Mexico, the ancient home of the Tigua Indians, located on the Taos River about fifty-two miles northeast of Santa Fe. It was first visited by the Spaniards in 1540.
 
An exhibit of pottery from the prehistoric Indians of Arizona occupies a case at the left of these models, and at the right objects from the Keres Indians of Laguna include masks, moccasins, stone implements and fetiches.

On the right side of the hall the center floor cases exhibit pottery of the Tewa, Keres and Tigua Indians, to the left of which is a collection of pottery and antiques excavated from prehistoric Indian graves near Fort Defiance, Arizona. This pottery is the ordinary domestic ware, very similar to that found in the Canon de Chelly. Much of it is decorated, and the cooking pots were made by the coil process. With the skeletons were found bone awls, ornaments, paint and other objects, among which a prehistoric copper bell and a decorated clay pipe are especially interesting.
The case on the east wall at this end of the hall contains prayer sticks, stone implements and other exhibits from the Jemez Indians of New Mexico, and in the same case are games, implements, fetiches and shrine offerings from the Keres. Games of the Tewa Indians are also shown here. Miscellaneous objects from the Keres Indians find a place on the shelves above.

The California Indian Hall of the Brooklyn Museum (Room 1 on plan) is entered from Room 3 from the west, and contains collections from five different tribal groups. These are the Porno Indians of Mendocino and Lake Counties, the Maidu of Plumas County, the Hupa Valley and Klamath River Indians of Humboldt County, the Mono of Madeira County and several tribes of the Mariposan linguistic stock in Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Mariposa and King Counties, California.

The exhibits from the Maidu occupy three cases at the left or south side of the hall and comprise basketry, games, dance accoutrements, ornaments and other objects.

The most important collection in this hall is that from the Pomo Indians of Clear Lake, which occupies the remaining cases on the south side and some of those on the north side of the hall. Basketry, textiles, tools and materials used in native manufactures, implements, costumes, games and beadwork are shown. An interesting part of this exhibit is a set of doctor's paraphernalia, containing specimens of dried mud puppy, coyotes' feet, medicine stones and other native remedies.

An ancient duck-shaped boat of the Porno is exhibited, and an immense Porno acorn storage basket, with scaffold and ladder to reach the top, is at the west end of the hall. Acorns formed the principal article of diet of these Indians, and many of their stone implements are designed for crushing and cracking them.

The exhibits from the Miwok, Mono, Hupa, Yokut and Klamath Indians on the north side of this hall of the Brooklyn Museum are of the same general type as those from the Maidu and Porno. A sweat-house ladder of the Hupa Indians, used for descending into the small underground chambers for the steam bath, is shown in the northwest corner of the room. Baskets for the Indian game of basket-ball are shown in the case devoted to the Miwok Indians. The mural paintings in this hall represent a view on the shores of Clear Lake, one of the ancient homes of the Porno Indians, some of whom still reside in the vicinity.

 

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