1 68 
KXRAMIC STUDIO 
Potteries from Awatobi and Sikyatki ; from the Seventeenth 
Annual Report of Bureau of American Ethnolog3'. 
INDIANTOTTERY 
[From China, Glass and Pottery.,Review.] 
IT is not from a study of monuments and the remains of great buildings that 
the modern ethnologist gains a true conception of the civilization of a 
remote people, but it is by close study of the household effects that have 
come down to us, that the atmosphere of a past civilization can be recalled 
from oblivion, and the customs, passions and pursuits of a people be studied 
intelligently. The pyramids of Egypt stand as evidences of an age when 
extravagance was dominant, for they represent a stupendous amount of 
manual labor; but do they tell as much of the luxuriant life of the Ptolemys 
as the "dressmaker's bill on a clay plaque," which shows that the lady of 
fashion of that day wore garments that were literally made of cloth of gold? 
So it is in the pottery of the ancients that we acquire our serviceable knowl- 
edge of their habits. 
In this country the study of- the aboriginal races has been pursued with 
great thoroughness, and as a consequence American ethnologists are regarded 
as the most proficient in the world. They have searched the caves, cliffs and 
huts of the Indian in the United States and in all the Central and South 
American Republics, and have classified the crude works that the Red Men 
have left as proof of their semi-civilization. The fact develops that nearly 
all the Indian tribes were familiar with the art of pottery-making, and that 
they took particular pains in producing attractive ware, the decorations on 
which undeniably establish the Indian's right to a place well advanced in the 
social scale. Indian pottery has a potential claim on Americans, and it is 
gratifying to note that not alone the pottery of the fast-vanishing aborigines, 
but also the other products of their skill are familiar and popular objects of 
decoration in all sorts of homes throughout the country. 
The connection between Indian pottery and Indian basket-work, while 
at first thought seemingly remote, is of a fact very close. The Indian woman 
who lined a fibre basket-bowl with sand and clay to prevent it from contract- 
ing, unconsciously lay the foundation of Indian pottery. These basket-bowls 
were used for drying and roasting seeds, and after long usage the sand and 
clay used to fill the interstices in the baskets became thoroughly baked, and 
the squaw discovered, to her astonishment and delight, that the earthen 
vessel would remain intact without the fibrous matrix, and that it would hold 
water. 
The Zuni pottery-maker, who is pictured in one of the illustrations 
accompanying this article, is one of the best of the workers in clay of that 
accomplished race. Kneading her clay to the proper consistency, she makes 
a long fillet, or rope of it, coiling it around a common centre to form the 
bottom, then spirally widening or contracting the diameter of the ascending 
coil, to form the shape desired. As the clay is adhesive, each added coil is 
pressed upon the one below, being shaped and smoothed inside and out by 
means of a small spatula of bone or stone, the whole process being most 
delicate and requiring infinite patience and skill. At first the coil pottery 
was plain ; then ornamentations were introduced. These consisted of wave- 
like indentations and rude geometrical designs, suggested by pressing the 
sharp edge of a blade of wood into the soft clay. A later decoration was 
made of incised lines and applied fillets, and then quickly followed relief 
ornamentation. 
It is most fascinating to trace the development of the artistic sense of 
the Indians; of how they elaborated on the shapes and decorations of their 
pots and vessels, and of how they departed from natural models to reproduce 
fanciful conceptions. There are specimens in our museums of mugs, bottles, 
