HOUSE AND GARDEN 
222 
Around the fireplace the presence of these Indian furnishings en-' 
hances the atmosphere of informality and comfort which is in¬ 
separable from the chimney corner 
to mix ornate types of art work, as of Japan and the Orient, 
with this more elemental and unelaborated work of the Indian. 
Where the latter is used to any extent, it must make the pre¬ 
dominant feature in the decoration of the room. No one knows 
better than the housekeeper of the Far West the charm of the 
Indian work; and a Southern California bungalow with well 
chosen Navajo rugs upon the floor, Indian jars holding potted 
plants and cut flowers, and workbaskets of Indian weave on 
table and mantel, is always a pleasant feature to Easterners in 
their first experience with Pacific Coast home life. 
There is, however, good Indian work and bad, and care is 
needed to discriminate between that which is put together hastily 
for sale to travelers and that which the Indians have made for 
their own use, or which is the product of true artists who labor 
quite as much for the love of their art as Michelangelo did 
for his. 
The forms of most practical value in American homes are 
the wool blanket —- for floor rugs and couch-covers — pottery 
and baskets. 
INDIAN BLANKETS 
Among Indian blankets the Navajo is preeminent when good, 
but its degrees of excellence are various. Best for looks and 
wear is the kind made from the wool of the Navajo's own sheep, 
and woven on wool warp. A cheaper grade is made with a cot¬ 
October, 1910 
ton warp which shortens the life of the blanket. The natural 
wool of the sheep produces, without dyeing, four colors—gray, 
brown, white and black—and blankets with designs woven in 
combinations of any of these colors can be counted on not to 
fade. All other colors in the present-day Navajo blanket are 
made by the use of aniline dyes, and are more or less likely to 
fade. Red is the most reliable of all, and a bit of this in the 
design of the natural wool colors is often a distinct advantage. 
Of other colors it is well to be wary, and especially of orange, 
green and purple. All these bright hues go liberally into the 
designs of a light weight style of Navajo blanket often seen in 
stores, which is woven of Germantown yarn bought ready-dyed 
from the traders. It is not recommended for floor wear. Until 
about a generation ago the dyes used by the Navajos were en¬ 
tirely of their own manufacture from vegetable and mineral 
sources of tried integrity, but since the traders have introduced 
the aniline colors to them, the old style of coloring has be¬ 
come obsolete. With the civilization of “ ‘Lo,’ the poor Indian," 
have come a few real disadvantages. 
As to the designs of the Navajo blanket, the best are such 
as are purely Indian, and are usually symbolic—as the terraced 
blocks that indicate to the aboriginal mind the clouds of heaven, 
the cross that typifies the morning star, the zigzag lines that 
stand for the lightning. The swastika, though very much over¬ 
done of late, is also a native design. It is hardly necessary to 
say that pictorial designs representing such objects as battleships, 
American flags and Bartlett pears — I have seen all these in a 
trader's stock—are debased art, as ridiculous to the Indian as 
to the cultivated white. They have been ordered made by 
mercenary traders to catch a certain kind of custom. 
As a floor covering, the Navajo rug is ideal. It keeps its 
position without tacking down, wears indefinitely and is easily 
cleaned. Besides, it is comfortably ornamental. 
THE PUEBLO 
POTTERY 
Indian pottery 
— all that is wor¬ 
thy the name of 
art — is the espe¬ 
cial art of the 
Pueblo Indians of 
New Mexico and 
Arizona — an in¬ 
teresting race 
who dwell in 
stone and adobe 
villages, and long 
before the white 
man ever heard 
of them had de¬ 
veloped a re¬ 
markable civiliza¬ 
tion by their own 
efforts. They are 
believed to be di¬ 
rect descendants 
of the prehistoric 
Cliff Dwellers, 
and of their 
twenty-seven vil¬ 
lages or pueblos 
almost all pro¬ 
duce some form 
of pottery. The 
make of each pu- Indian accessories for a sewing-table, giving 
, , , , an acceptable note of color against the 
cblo has a char- mahogafiy 
