Indians of the pueblos, a story of Indian life

Introduction

I 'HIS book is the fourth in the Indian Life Series by the Demings.

^ It is a story of Indian life in a pueblo, or village, in New Mexico. The authors lived among these Red People for years and had a part in each of the events described. These events occurred many years ago, before the Pueblo Indians had greatly changed their ways.

Mr. Deming was then a young artist. He wished to paint pictures that would show the manners and customs of the old-time Indians. Every picture in this book was painted by Mr. Deming from sketches made while he lived in a pueblo. Boys and girls who visit museums will sometimes find larger pictures that Mr. Deming has made of some of these scenes.

Mrs. Deming, too, became familiar with the lives of the Pueblo Indian people, who were her friends and neighbors. The Indians taught her the meanings of the many feasts and dances that occupied a large part of their time. She also learned their ways of expressing thoughts. In a diary, she kept notes of what she learned about Indian life. With the aid of these notes she has here described what she saw and heard.

Young readers of this book will sometime study the history of our country. They will then learn that the Spaniards were the first white men to travel and to live in the Southwest. These men used words from their own language to name the things that they saw. To them, a village such as those in which these Indians lived was a pueblo. The square, or court, about which the Pueblo Indians built their homes was a plaza. The little animal that is elsewhere called a donkey was to the Spaniards a burro. The authors have used these and other significant Spanish names that are still used in our Southwest.

Each book in the Indian Life Series pictures the dominant traits of one of the three great types of Indians. Little Eagle very simply introduces the first-grade reader to Indian life through the experiences of an Indian baby’s first childhood days. The Indians in Winter Camp, written simply enough for second-grade children, tells of the experiences of a slightly older boy who lived on the plains in a skin tepee. Red People of the Wooded Country is a story of the adven¬ tures of two little Indian boys whose homes were birch-bark wigwams in the woodlands. It can be read with ease by third-grade children. Indians of the Pueblos is about the Indians of the Southwest, as de¬ scribed above. It can be read easily by fourth-grade children; but, like the other books of the series, it will also be read with interest and profit by children of higher grades. The readers of the Indian Life Series will acquire from the stories a knowledge of Indian customs, traditions, religion, and culture.

These stories have been prepared under the direction and supervision of Professor Milo B. Hillegas of Columbia University.

The Publishers.

Contents

Page

The Twin Warriors Lead the Way. 7

The Sleepy Rain Makers. 16