Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest Part 2

Of possible use in working out certain phases of life and literature common to the Southwest as well as to the West and Middle West are the following academic treatises: _The Frontier in American Literature_, by Lucy Lockwood Hazard, New York, 1927; _The Literature of the Middle Western Frontier_, by Ralph Leslie Rusk, New York, 1925; _The Prairie and the Making of Middle America_, by Dorothy Anne Dondore, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1926; _The Literature of the Rocky Mountain West 1803-1903_, by L. J. Davidson and P. Bostwick, Caldwell, Idaho, 1939; and _The Rediscovery of the Frontier_, by Percy H. Boynton, Chicago, 1931. Anyone interested in vitality in any phase of American writing will find Vernon L. Parrington's _Main Currents in American Thought_ (three vols.), New York, 1927-39, an opener-up of avenues.

Perhaps the best anthology of southwestern narratives is _Golden Tales of the Southwest_, selected by Mary L. Becker, New York, 1939. Two anthologies of southwestern writings are _Southwesterners Write_, edited by T. M. Pearce and A. P. Thomason, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1946, and _Roundup Time_, edited by George Sessions Perry, Whittlesey House, New York, 1943. Themes common to the Southwest are represented in _Western Prose and Poetry_, an anthology put together by Rufus A. Coleman, New York, 1932, and in _Mid Country: Writings from the Heart of America_, edited by Lowry C. Wimberly, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1945.

For the southern tradition that has flowed into the Southwest Franklin J. Meine's _Tall Tales of the Southwest_, New York, 1930, OP, is the best anthology published. It is the best anthology of any kind that I know of. _A Southern Treasury of Life and Literature_, selected by Stark Young, New York, 1937, brings in Texas.

Anthologies of poetry are listed under the heading of "Poetry and Drama." The outstanding state bibliography of the region is _A Bibliography of Texas_, by C. W. Raines, Austin, 1896. Since this is half a century behind the times, its usefulness is limited. At that, it is more useful than the shiftless, hit-and-miss, ignorance-revealing _South of Forty: From the Mississippi to the Rio Grande: A Bibliography_, by Jesse L. Rader, Norman, Oklahoma, 1947. Henry R. Wagner's _The Plains and the Rockies_, "a contribution to the bibliography of original narratives of travel and adventure, 1800-1865,"

which came out 1920-21, was revised and extended by Charles L. Camp and reprinted in 1937. It is stronger on overland travel than on anything else, only in part covers the Southwest, and excludes a greater length of time than Raines's _Bibliography_. Now published by Long's College Book Co., Columbus, Ohio.

Mary G. Boyer's _Arizona in Literature_, Glendale, California, 1934, is an anthology that runs toward six hundred pages. _Texas Prose Writings_, by Sister M. Agatha, Dallas, 1936, OP, is a meaty, critical survey. L.

W. Payne's handbook-sized _A Survey of Texas Literature_, Chicago, 1928, is complemented by a chapter ent.i.tled "Literature and Art in Texas" by J. Frank Dobie in _The Book of Texas_, New York, 1929. OP.

_A Guide to Materials Bearing on Cultural Relations in New Mexico_, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1944, is so logical and liberal-minded that in some respects it amounts to a bibliography of the whole Southwest; it recognizes the overriding of political boundaries by ideas, human types, and other forms of culture. The _New Mexico Quarterly_, published by the University of New Mexico, furnishes periodically a bibliographical record of contemporary literature of the Southwest. _New Mexico's Own Chronicle_, edited by Maurice G. Fulton and Paul Horgan (Dallas, 1937, OP), is an anthology strong on the historical side.

In the lists that follow, the symbol OP indicates that the book is out of print. Many old books obviously out of print are not so tagged.

4. Indian Culture; Pueblos and Navajos

THE LITERATURE on the subject of Indians is so extensive and ubiquitous that, unless a student of Americana is pursuing it, he may find it more troublesome to avoid than to get hold of. The average old-timer has for generations regarded Indian scares and fights as the most important theme for reminiscences. County-minded historians have taken the same point of view. The Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution has buried records of Indian beliefs, ceremonies, mythology, and other folklore in hundreds of tomes; laborious, literal-minded scholars of other inst.i.tutions have been as a.s.siduous. In all this lore and tabulation of facts, the Indian folk themselves have generally been dried out.

The Anglo-American's policy toward the Indian was to kill him and take his land, perhaps make a razor-strop out of his hide. The Spaniard's policy was to baptize him, take his land, enslave him, and appropriate his women. Any English-speaking frontiersman who took up with the Indians was dubbed "squaw man"--a term of sinister connotations. Despite pride in descending from Pocahontas and in the vaunted Indian blood of such individuals as Will Rogers, crossbreeding between Anglo-Americans and Indians has been restricted, as compared, for instance, with the interdicted crosses between white men and black women. The Spaniards, on the other hand, crossed in battalions with the Indians, generating _mestizo_ (mixed-blooded) nations, of which Mexico is the chief example.

As a result, the English-speaking occupiers of the land have in general absorbed directly only a minimum of Indian culture--nothing at all comparable to the Uncle Remus stories and characters and the spiritual songs and the blues music from the Negroes. Grandpa still tells how his own grandpa saved or lost his scalp during a Comanche horse-stealing raid in the light of the moon; Boy Scouts hunt for Indian arrowheads; every section of the country has a bluff called Lovers' Leap, where, according to legend, a pair of forlorn Indian lovers, or perhaps only one of the pair, dived to death; the maps all show Caddo Lake, Kiowa Peak, Squaw Creek, Tehuacana Hills, Nacogdoches town, Cherokee County, Indian Gap, and many another place name derived from Indian days. All such contacts with Indian life are exterior. Three forms of Indian culture are, however, weaving into the life patterns of America.

(1) The Mexicans have naturally inherited and a.s.similated Indian lore about plants, animals, places, all kinds of human relationships with the land. Through the Mexican medium, with which he is becoming more sympathetic, the gringo is getting the ages-old Indian culture.

(2) The Pueblo and Navajo Indians in particular are impressing their arts, crafts, and ways of life upon special groups of Americans living near them, and these special groups are transmitting some of their acquisitions. The special groups incline to be arty and worshipful, but they express a salutary revolt against machined existence and they have done much to revive dignity in Indian life. Offsetting dilettantism, the Museum of New Mexico and a.s.sociated inst.i.tutions and artists and other individuals have fostered Indian pottery, weaving, silversmithing, dancing, painting, and other arts and crafts. Superior craftsmanship can now depend upon a fairly reliable market; the taste of American buyers has been somewhat elevated.

O mountains, pure and holy, give me a song, a strong and holy song to bless my flock and bring the rain!

This is from "Navajo Holy Song," as rendered by Edith Hart Mason. It expresses a spiritual content in Indian life far removed from the We and G.o.d, Incorporated form of religion ordained by the National a.s.sociation of Manufacturers.

(3) The wild freedom, mobility, and fierce love of liberty of the mounted Indians of the Plains will perhaps always stir imaginations--something like the charging Cossacks, the camping Arabs, and the migrating Tartars. There is no romance in Indian fights east of the Mississippi. The mounted Plains Indians always made a big hit in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Little boys still climb into their seats and cry out when red hors.e.m.e.n of the Plains ride across the screen.

See "Apaches, Comanches, and Other Plains Indians," "Mountain Men."

APPLEGATE, FRANK G. _Indian Stories from the Pueblos_, Philadelphia, 1929. Charming. OP.

ASTROV, MARGOT (editor), _The Winged Serpent_, John Day, New York, 1946.

An anthology of prose and poetry by American Indians. Here are singular expressions of beauty and dignity.

AUSTIN, MARY. _The Trail Book_, 1918, OP; _One-Smoke Stories_, 1934, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Delightful folk tales, each leading to a vista.

BANDELIER, A. F. _The Delight Makers_, 1918, Dodd, Mead, New York.

Historical fiction on ancient pueblo life.

COOLIDGE, DANE and MARY. _The Navajo Indians_, Boston, 1930. Readable; bibliography. OP.

COOLIDGE, MARY ROBERTS. _The Rain-Makers_, Boston, 1929. OP. This thorough treatment of the Indians of Arizona and New Mexico contains an excellent account of the Hopi snake ceremony for bringing rain. During any severe drought numbers of Christians in the Southwest pray without snakes. It always rains eventually--and the prayer-makers naturally take the credit. The Hopis put on a more spectacular show. See Dr. Walter Hough's _The Hopi Indians_, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1915. OP.

CUSHING, FRANK HAMILTON. _Zuni Folk Tales_, 1901; reprinted, 1931, by Knopf, New York. _My Adventures in Zuni_, Santa Fe, 1941. _Zuni Breadstuff_, Museum of the American Indian, New York, 1920. Cushing had rare imagination and sympathy. His retellings of tales are far superior to verbatim recordings. _Zuni Breadstuff_ reveals more of Indian spirituality than any other book I can name. All OP.

DEHUFF, ELIZABETH. _Tay Tay's Tales_, 1922; _Tay Tay's Memories_, 1924.

OP.

DOUGLAS, FREDERIC H., and D HARNONCOURT, RENE. _Indian Art of the United States_, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1941.

DYK, WALTER. _Son of Old Man Hat_, New York, 1938. OP.

FERGUSSON, ERNA. _Dancing G.o.ds_, Knopf, New York, 1931. Erna Fergusson is always illuminating.

FOREMAN, GRANT. _Indians and Pioneers_, 1930, and _Advancing the Frontier_, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1933. Grant Foreman is prime authority on the so-called "Civilized Tribes." University of Oklahoma Press has published a number of excellent volumes in "The Civilization of the American Indian" series.

GILLMOR, FRANCES, and WETHERILL, LOUISA WADE. _Traders to the Navajos_, Boston, 1936; reprinted by University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1952. An account not only of the trading post Wetherills but of the Navajos as human beings, with emphasis on their spiritual qualities.

G.o.dDARD, P. E. _Indians of the Southwest_, New York, 1921. Excellent outline of exterior facts. OP.

HAMILTON, CHARLES (editor). _Cry of the Thunderbird_, Macmillan, New York, 1951. An anthology of writings by Indians containing many interesting leads.

HEWETT, EDGAR L. _Ancient Life in the American Southwest_, Indianapolis, 1930. OP. A master work in both archeology and Indian nature. (With Bertha P. Dretton) _The Pueblo Indian World_, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1945.

HODGE, F. W. _Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico_, Washington, D. C., 1907. Indispensable encyclopedia, by a very great scholar and a very fine gentleman. OP.

LABARRE, WESTON. _The Peyote Cult_, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1938.

LAFARGE, OLIVER. _Laughing Boy_, Boston, 1929. The Navajo in fiction.

LUMMIS, C. F. _Mesa, Canon, and Pueblo_, New York, 1925; _Pueblo Indian Folk Tales_, New York, 1910. Lummis, though self-vaunting and opinionated, opens windows.

MATTHEWS, WASHINGTON. _Navajo Legends_, Boston, 1897; _Navajo Myths, Prayers and Songs_, Berkeley, California, 1907.

MOONEY, JAMES. _Myths of the Cherokees_, in Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1902. Outstanding writing.

NELSON, JOHN LOUW. _Rhythm for Rain_, Boston, 1937. Based on ten years spent with the Hopi Indians, this study of their life is a moving story of humanity. OP.

PEARCE, J. E. _Tales That Dead Men Tell_, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1935. Eloquent, liberating to the human mind; something rare for Texas scholarship. Pearce was professor of anthropology at the University of Texas, an emanc.i.p.ator from prejudices and ignorance. It is a pity that all the college students who are forced by the bureaucrats of Education--Education spelled with a capital E--"the unctuous elaboration of the obvious"--do not take anthropology instead.

Collegians would then stand a chance of becoming educated.

PETRULLO, VICENZO. _The Diabolic Root: A Study of Peyotism, the New Indian Religion, among the Delawares_, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1934. The use of peyote has now spread northwest into Canada. See Milly Peac.o.c.k Stenberg's _The Peyote Culture among Wyoming Indians_, University of Wyoming Publications, Laramie, 1946, for bibliography.

REICHARD, GLADYS A. _Spider Woman_, 1934, and _Dezba Woman of the Desert_, 1939. Both honest, both OP.

SIMMONS, LEO W. (editor). _Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a Hopi Indian_, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1942. The clearest view into the mind and living ways, including s.e.x life, of an Indian that has been published. Few autobiographers have been clearer; not one has been franker. A singular human doc.u.ment.