THE HOPI SNAKE-DANCE 65 



and poetry. The Indian children already know 

 most of the poetry, with its peculiarly baffling 

 rhythm. Mr. O Hara wishes to appoint special 

 Indian instructors of this music, carefully cho 

 sen, in the schools; as he said: &quot;If the Navajo 

 can bring with him into civilization the ability 

 to preserve his striking and bewildering rhythm, 

 he will have done in music what Thorpe, the 

 Olympic champion, did in athletics.&quot; Miss 

 Curtis and Mr. O Hara represent the effort to 

 perpetuate Indian art in the life of the Indian 

 to-day, not only for his sake, but for our own. 

 This side of Indian life is entirely unrevealed 

 to most white men; and there is urgent need 

 from the standpoint of the white man himself 

 of a proper appreciation of native art. Such 

 appreciation may mean much toward helping 

 the development of an original American art 

 for our whole people. 



No white visitor to Walpi was quite as in 

 teresting as an Indian visitor, a Navajo who 

 was the owner and chauffeur of the motor in 

 which Mr. Hubbell had driven to Walpi. He 

 was an excellent example of the Indian who 

 ought to be given the chance to go to a non- 

 reservation school a class not perhaps as 

 yet relatively very large, but which will grow 

 steadily larger. He had gone to such a school; 



