THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



WEST WING 



Indians of the Southwest 



"Once more within the Potter's house alone 

 I stood, surrounded by the Shapes of Clay." 



The collections from this hall have been secured chiefly 

 from the States of Arizona and New Mexico.'-' While this 

 area is generally thought of as an arid region, it is well 

 adapted to certain kinds of agriculture. In it are found 

 many prehistoric remains, some of which are undoubtedly 

 the work of tribes still living, while others are further re- 

 moved. For purposes of study the collections have been 

 divided so as to place those secured from the Nomadic In- 



tire dance is under the direction of an old man, who is the 

 keeper of the "flat pipe," the most sacred possession of the tribe, 

 which is believed to have been the first thing that existed in the 

 world. This pipe is wrapped in a large bundle, which is hung 

 on a stand of four sticks set up at the foot of the tree in the 

 center of the lodge. The hoop carried by the man who has 

 pledged the dance is also sacred. Some of the paintings on the 

 bodies of the dancers represent thunder birds, water monsters, 

 dragon flies, trees and lightning. Every dance is held in a new 

 lodge, which is erected very carefully with new ceremonies. At 

 the conclusion of the dance the lodge is abandoned and allowed 

 to fall to pieces. In former times, on the last day of the dance 

 the dancers passed ropes of rawhide through the skin of their 

 breast, and tied them to the sacred tree. They then threw them- 

 selves backward until the ropes were torn out of the skin. This 

 self-torture gave the dance the name of "Sacrifice Lodge." 



9 Indians of the Southwest— .25 and .50. 



35 



