Ethnology of the Pacific Coast 

 Navaho, Apache, and Havasupai, have never become 

 proficient in it. The last named inhabit an ex- 

 tremely romantic gorge opening off of the Grand 

 Cafion, one of the most extraordinary dwelling 

 places in the world. The textiles, also, of the South- 

 west have become very widelj^ known. For 

 centuries all of the sedentary tribes have made 

 highly ornamental blankets, first of native cotton, 

 and more recently of woolen yarn. These blankets 

 have become very common in civilized homes as 

 hangings, couch-covers and even as rugs. They 

 are, among the Indians, purely articles of attire. 

 The manufacture of the finest blankets has become 

 associated with the name of one of the wandering 

 tribes, the Navaho. It is nevertheless an art bor- 

 rowed by this tribe from the sedentary peoples. 



The one thing, however, which most attracts the 

 attention of travelers among the villages of the 

 Southwest is the religious life of the Indians. The na- 

 tive people of the different pueblos still hold a great 

 many striking ceremonies. The wandering tribes have 

 even more elaborate observances, but they are less 

 widely known, because the tribes themselves are 

 less accessible. Perhaps the most frequently men- 

 tioned performance is the Snake Dance of the Hopi 

 pueblos, in which members of a certain secret so- 

 ciety dance with living and venomous rattlesnakes 

 in their mouths. Conspicuous in the religious life 

 of all pueblo peoples is the kiva, or sacred under- 

 ground chamber. These chambers, called "estufas," 

 or ovens, by the Spaniards, are quite as character- 

 istic of the ancient cliff ruins as they are of the 

 modern pueblos. Among all the Southwestern 

 tribes, nomad and sedentary, we find the custom of 

 making on the ground curious drawings in connec- 

 tion with ceremonies. These earth drawings, or "sand 

 paintings,'* or "sand Mosaics," as they are some- 

 times called, are often surprisingly elaborate. On 

 the whole there are few places where the work- 

 ings of primitive religion can be as satisfactorily 

 observed as among these Southwestern pueblos. 



The Southwest is now in large part fairly acces- 

 sible. To visit some of the hunter tribes, for ex- 

 ample some of the Apache groups, a long journey on 

 horseback is necessary. Several of the pueblos, 

 however, such as Isleta and Laguna, can be seen 

 from the car windows on the Santa Fe railway. 

 Some of the cliff-dwellings, even, which were lo- 

 cated originally in remote and inaccessible places, 

 can now be visited with comparatively little trouble. 

 The extremely interesting Mesa Verde region, which 

 contains some of the most famous cliff ruins, is 



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