Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

November, 1924 PICTURED LIFE FOR HOME, SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 375 mothers, and which they have made famous throughout the country and beyond. This pueblo has some very skilful pottery makers, notable among them being Marie Martinez, whose efficient work has done much to make the name of San Ildefonso broadly known. Susanna and Her Wares Men do not make pottery but they help to decorate it with the symbolisms of their race, and some of them do most accurate and beautiful work, making designs and fine lines with never a measure or other help than their delicate and exact eye. Some of the work they turn out claims the admiration and wonder of artists and others who love beauty, as extant work of their ancestors claims the admiration and wonder of archaeologists and all lovers of history. Besides pottery, both men and women make shell beads, or wampum, and very attractive are these' laboriously wrought ornaments, one string of which costs many days or winter nights of work. Others, although they are not numerous in this pueblo, make silver jewelry, popular among themselves and much sought by tourists. Silver beads, broaches, bracelets, rings, ear-rings, are formed and decorated by these jewelers and command a good price. There are a few basketmakers, too, and their work is good. Beading is popular work on winter nights — when the family sits before the bright open fireplace situated in an angle of the large living room of the cozy adobe, while "Once upon a time" stories of their ancestors are told by father, mother, or grand-parent. Belts and necklaces are formed from fine beads, and their own buckskin trousers, jackets, skirts, and moccasins are ornamented with this beaded decoration. Tens of thousands of beads are worked in the pueblo during a single winter. Drawing is another popular art, and even very small children take to this with a skill sometimes astonishing to see. Awatsereh* a talented young man of San Ildefonso, has become recognized abroad for his pictures, which now demand a good price and are sought by artists and people of artistic taste. He and other artists of the pueblo draw and paint only pictures of their own people, or symbols that have come down from their ancestors, the meanings of which are known only to their own people. From all of this it can be seen that the education of the children of San Ildefonso is continuous in their homes. But they also have schools in the pueblos, furnished by the Government, where they are taught the common English branches of education, as well as something of our practical domestic work. These children of course are not as advanced in the grades as white children, because their environment has been so different. Until they have entered school they have heard little English and have not learned it at all. During the Indian child's first year in school his chief affair is getting familiar with English words and phrases, English designations of objects, acts, and so forth, and simple *Indian name, meaning "Bird on the Reed." "Grandfather's charge" counting. Naturally, then, he can not advance as rapidly as his white contemporaries, with their knowledge of English and home preparation for school, but this does not mean that he is less bright than they. These little descendants of the "Red Race" are as intelligent as any like number of children to be found anywhere, and some of them make rapid progress in the new education into which they have been initiated. In the San Ildefonso school last term one girl in the fourth grade made a total average of 92 in her examinations and she would have obtained an even higher mark had it not been for the troublesome English with its complications of pronouns, adjectives, connections, and other puzzling words and constructions. Tomacita is a very bright girl of ten. Some of the pupils made low and some fair marks ; some were good in some studies and poor in others, so that they average about the same as any school of children might. Outside of school these children have a fund of knowledge of their own that many grown people have, missed. They can tell what sorts of animals have passed, by the tracks they left behind; they can tell in a dusty or sandy road full of tracks whether a person walked alone or in company with one or more other persons, or with a dog or other animal. They know the names (in Indian) of every plant, animal, insect, or other creature that inhabits their region, and they can tell the habits of these and other manifestations of nature. They love all phenomena, even though the little ones may hide from fierce flashes of lightning and