6
THE
CHEMA W A
AM ERICAN
him. Moreover, let us be wary of interfering overmuch with either his
work or his play. It is mere tyranny, for instance, to stop all Indian
dances. Some which are obscene, or which are dangerous on other
grounds, must be prohibited. Others should be permitted, and many
of them encouraged. Nothing that tells for the joy of life, in any com
munity, should be lightly touched.
A few Indians may be able to turn themselves into ordinary citizens
in a dozen years. Give these exceptional Indians every chance; but
remember that the majority must change gradually, and that it will
take generations to make the change complete. Help them to make it
in such fashion that when the change is accomplished we shall find
that the original and valuable elements in the Indian culture have been
retained, so that the new citizens come with full hands into the great
field of American life, and contribute to that life something of marked
value to all of us, something which it would be a misfortune to all of
us to have destroyed.
As an example, take the case of these Hopi mesa towns, perched in
such boldly picturesque fashion on high, sheer-walled rock ridges.
Many good people wish to force the Hopis to desert these towns, and
live in isolated families in nice tin-roofed houses on the plains below.
I believe that this would be a mistake from the standpoint of the In
dians—not to mention depriving our country of something as notable
and as attractive as the castles that have helped make the Rhine beauti
ful and famous. Let the effort be to insist on cleanliness and sanita
tion in the villages as they are, and especially to train the Indians
themselves to insist thereon; and to make it easier for them to get wa
ter. In insisting on cleanliness, remember that we preach a realizable
ideal; our own ancestors lived in villages as filthy not three centuries
ago. The breezy coolness of the rocky mesa top and the magnificent
outlook would make it to me personally a far more attractive dwelling-
place than the hot, dusty plains. Morever, the present Hopi house,
with its thick roof, is cooler and pleasanter than a tin-roofed house.
I believe it would be far wiser gradually to develop the Hopi house it
self, making it more commodious and convenient, rather than to aban
don it and plant the Indian in a brand-new Government-buiit house, pre
cisely like some ten miilion other cheap houses. The Hopi architecture
is a product of its own environment; it is as picturesque as anything of
the kind which our art students travel to Spain in order to study.
Therefore let us keep it. The Hopi architecture can be kept, adapted,
and developed just as we have kept, adapted, and developed the Mission
architecture of the southwest—with the results seen in beautiful Leland
Stanford University. The University of New Mexico is, most wisely,
modeled on these pueblo bindings; and Mr. Frank Mead, the architect,