AMERICAN NATIVE RACES OF MEN 



217 



While the fine weaving of the baskets commends itself, 

 the interesting features are the decorations and shapes, 

 which prove that these natives have a remarkable art sense, 

 which finds expression in this way. I have bought baskets 

 from a squaw which might have been molded and de- 

 signed by an artist, a man of culture ; yet the woman was 

 surrounded by all the evidences of barbarism and squalor. 



The Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, especially the 

 Navajos and Zunis, are fine types — intelligent, self-sup- 

 porting, and deserving 

 of respect ; but nearly 

 all these native owners 

 of the soil have re- 

 ceived treatment from 

 the American people 

 that can only be desig- 

 nated as outrageous. 

 The question has be- 

 come a national one, 

 — a stain on the flag. 

 This is particularly true 

 of the so-called Mission Indians. When Cabrillo visited 

 California the entire coast was found inhabited by a hardy 

 people who were fishermen and trappers, hunters and 

 traders. They had beautifully shaped canoes, utensils, 

 weapons of stone ; in fact, so far as their articles are 

 concerned, they represented the stone age, so called, im- 

 pinging on the nineteenth century. 



In a few hundred years this great series of tribes has 

 been almost wiped out ; their graves have been looted and 

 sacked, and all that remains of a once powerful people are 



Fig. 201, — Indian Basket (Arizona). 



