522 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



(1910) . Both works relate to the Hopi ; the former in modern times, 

 the latter during the advent of the Spaniards. Ethnologically, Mrs. 

 Ryan does not reach the high standard of Miss Proctor, but she also 

 is undeniably a poet, although she does not write in verse. A feeling 

 of deep sympathy with these gentle, interesting Indians, and sadness 

 over their fate, pervades the work of both these writers. 



The short life story of Se-kyal-ets-tewa (Dawn Light), the hero 

 and " writer " of the Love Letters, is the melancholy story of many 

 young Indians educated in the East and sacrificed to a principle. A 

 year after his return to Walpi, Se-kyal-ets-tewa writes defiantly to 

 the American maiden with her " eyes of turquoise," whom he loves in 

 secret : 



Yes! I am again the Indian! From the mocassin of brown deer skin to 

 the head band of scarlet there is not anything of the white man's garb to tell 

 your friends that I was a player in the University team, who for a little while 

 was called by a white man's meaningless name, and who sat beside you on the 

 sand dunes of the Eastern Sea a year ago. 



I sit alone now and write this on a sand dune under Arizona's skies, at the 

 foot of old Walpi's cliffs . . . 



In the sand dunes there is always silence ; a suggestion of a vast desert of 

 immeasurable silences where everything human can be buried and forgotten. 



The white shells, gathered by you and given to me in jest that day to make 

 a necklace for an Indian maiden, are on the stone shrine, centuries old, on a won- 

 derful mesa. 



They keep company with the baho (plume prayer sticks) of our primitive 

 religion. The God of the Skies guard them there. 



Space forbids more quotations as well as a detailed synopsis of the 

 Letters. Suffice to say that the end of Se-kyal-ets-tewa is tragic. 

 With shattered hopes he is continually fretting, giving vent to his 

 feelings in numerous letters to his lady love and finally dies of tuber- 

 culosis. An Indian girl, rival of the " Maid of the Moon Song," 

 remains to mourn his loss. 



Dawn Light is a kind of Chactas (vide infra), but much less 

 theatrical, a sort of Indian Werther. Mrs. Ryan undoubtedly poured 

 out much of her own soul in these " letters " which, however, do not 

 quite solve the problem whether potentially a highly educated Indian 

 is capable of expressing his feelings in the way that Se-kyal-ets-tewa 

 does. 



Mrs. Ryan's descriptions of Hopi land, with its high mesas and 

 deep canyons, its glorious sunsets, and moon-lit nights, are particu- 

 larly truthful and excellent. 



Quite different from the works briefly analyzed in this chapter are 

 the books of the late Frederic Remington. 13 If Remington, perhaps, 

 was not as great a writer as artist, nevertheless his literary products 



13 An appreciation of Remington as an Indian painter appeared in Anthropos, t. VI, 

 Vienna, 1911. 



