98 



ARTS AND INDUSTRIES 



[b. a. 



lii))it the best expressions in fine art. 

 Another branch is the gathering of stone 

 for building. 



Water inchistry. — This includes activi- 

 ties and inventions concerned in finding, 

 carrying, storing, and heating water, and 

 in irrigation, also, far more important 

 than any of these, the making of vessels 

 for plying on the water, which was the 

 mother of many arts. The absence of the 

 larger beasts of burden and the accom- 

 modating waterways together stimulated 

 the perfecting of various boats to suit 

 particular regions. 



Earth vork. — To this belong gathering, 

 carrying, and using the soil for construc- 

 tion purposes, excavating cellars, build- 

 ing sod and snow houses, and digging 

 ditches. The Arctic permanent houses 

 were made of earth and sod, the tem- 

 porary ones of snow cut in blocks, which 

 were laid in spiral courses to form low 

 domes. The Eskimo were especially in- 

 genious in solving the mechanical prob- 

 lems presented by their environment of 

 ice. The St Lawrence, Atlantic, and 

 Canadian tribes undertook no earth-build- 

 ing that I'etjuired skill; but those of the 

 Mississippi valley, the Gulf states, and 

 the far S. W., in their mounds and earth- 

 works developed engineering and cooper- 

 ative ability of no mean order. In some 

 cases millions of cubic feet of earth were 

 built up into geometric forms, the mate- 

 rial often having been borne long dis- 

 tances by men and women. The tribes 

 of the Pacific coast lived in partly subter- 

 ranean houses. The Puel)lo tribes were 

 skilful in laying out and digging irrigat- 

 ing ditches and in the builder's art, erect- 

 ing houses and walls of stones, pise, or 

 adobe. Some remains of stone structures 

 show much taste in arrangement. 



Ceramic art. — This industry includes all 

 operations in plastic materials. The Arc- 

 tic tribes in the extreme W., which lack 

 proper stone, kneaded with their fingers 

 lumps of clay mixed with blood and hair 

 into rude lamps and cooking vessels, but 

 in the zone of intense cold besides the 

 ruder form there was no pottery. The 

 tribes of Canada and of the n. tier of states 

 w. of L. Superior and those of the Pacific 

 slope worked little in clay; but the Indi- 

 ans of the Atlantic slope, of the Missis- 

 sippi valley, and especially of the S. W. 

 knew how to gather and mix clay and 

 form it into pottery, much of which has 

 great artistic merit. This industry was 

 quite generally woman's work, and each 

 region shows separate types of form and 

 decoration. 



Metal craft. — This included raining, 

 grinding of ores and paint, rubbing, cold- 

 hammering, engraving, embossing, and 

 overlaying with plates. The metals were 

 copper, hematite and meteoric iron, lead 



in the form of galena, and nugget gold 

 and mica. No smelting was done. 



Wood craft. — Here belongs the felling of 

 trees with stone axes and lire. The soft- 

 est woods, such as pine, cedar, poplar, and 

 cypress, were chosen for canoes, house 

 frames, totem poles, and other large ob- 

 jects. The stems of smaller trees were 

 used also for many purposes. Driftwood 

 was wrought into bows by the Eskimo. 

 As there were no saws, trunks were split 

 and hewn into single planks on the N. 

 Pacific coast. Immense communal dwell- 

 ings of cedar were there erected, the tim- 

 bers being moved by rude mechanical ap- 

 pliances and set in place with ropes and 

 skids. The carving on house posts, totem 

 poles, and household furniture was often 

 admirable. In the S. W. underground 

 stems were carved into objects of use and 

 ceremony. 



Rootcrafi. — Practised for food, basketry, 

 textiles, dyes, fish-poisoning, medicine, 

 etc. Serving the purposes of wood, the 

 roots of plants developed a number of 

 special arts and industries. 



Fiber craft.- — Far more important than 

 roots for textile purposes, the stems, 

 leaves, and inner and outer bark of 

 plants and the tissues of animals, having 

 each its special qualities, engendered a 

 whole series of arts. Some of these mate- 

 rials were used for siding and roofing 

 houses; others yielded shredded fiber, 

 yarn, string, and rope; and some were 

 employed in furniture, clothing, food re- 

 ceptacles, and utensils. Cotton was ex- 

 tensively cultivated in the S. W. 



Seed craft. — The harvesting of berries, 

 acorns and other nuts, and grain and oth- 

 er seeds developed primitive methods of 

 gathering, carrying, milling, storing, cook- 

 ing, and serving, with innumerable ob- 

 servances of days and seasons, and multi- 

 farious ceremony and lore. 



Not content with merely taking from 

 the hand of nature, the Indians were 

 primitive agriculturists. In gathering 

 roots tkey first unconsciously stirred the 

 soil and stimulated better growth. They 

 planted gourds in favored places, and re- 

 turned in autumn to harvest the (;rops. 

 Maize was regularly planted on ground 

 cleared with the help of fire and was 

 cultivated with sharpened sticks and hoes 

 of bone, shell, and stone. Tobacco was 

 cultivated by many tribes, some of which 

 planted nothing else. 



Animal industries. — Arts and industries 

 depending on the animal kingdom in- 

 clude primarily hunting, fishing, trap- 

 ping, and domestication. (See Hunting. ) 

 The secondary arts involve cooking and 

 otherwise preparing food; the butchering 

 and skinning of animals, skin-dressing in 

 all its forms; cutting garments, tents, 

 boats, and hundreds of smaller articles 



