Lace and Pottery Makers.
In the preceding chapter I have presented, in a broad and casual
manner, the work of the Pala basket-makers. They are not confined,
however, to this as their only artistic industry. They engage in other
work that is both beautiful and useful. For centuries they have been
pottery makers, though, as far as I can learn, they have never learned
to decorate their ware with the artistic, quaint, and symbolic designs
used by the Zunis, Acomese, Hopis and other Pueblo Indians of Arizona
and New Mexico, or that might have been suggested by the designs on
their own basketry.
The shapes of their pottery in the main are simple and few, but, when
made by skilful hands, are beautiful and pleasing. They make saucers,
bowls, jars and ollas. Clay is handled practically in the same way as
the materials of basketry. After the clay is well washed, _puddled_,
and softened, it is rolled into a rope-like length. After the center
is moulded by the thumbs and fingers of the potter, on a small basket
base which she holds in her lap, the clay rope is coiled so as to
build up the pot to the desired size. As each coil is added, it is
smoothed down with the fingers and a small _spatula_ of bone, pottery
or dried gourd skin, the shape being made and maintained by constant
manipulation. When completed it is either dried in the sun, or baked
over a fire made of dried cow or burro dung, which does not get so hot
as to crack the ware, or give out a smoke to blacken it.
In the dressing of skins, and making of rabbit-skin blankets, the
older Indians used to be great adepts, but modern materials have taken
away the necessity for these things.
Before the Palatinguas were removed from Warner's Ranch to Pala, one
of them, gifted with the white man's business sense, and with the
creative or inventive faculty, started an industry which he soon made
very profitable. Every traveler over the uncultivated and desert area
of Southern California has been struck with the immense number of
yuccas, Spanish daggers, that seemed to spring up spontaneously on
every hand. This keen-brained Indian, José Juan Owlinguwush, saw
these, and wiser than some of his smart white brothers, determined to
put them to practical and profitable use. He had the bayonets gathered
by the hundreds, the thousands. Then he had them beaten, flailed,
until the fibres were all separated one from another. The outer skins
were thrown away, but the inner fibres were taken and cured. Then, on
one of the most primitive spinning-wheels ever designed, and worked by
a smiling school-girl, who passed a strap over a square portion of a
spindle, at the end of which was a hook, so as to make it revolve at a
high degree of speed, the fiber was spun into rope. To the hook the
yucca fibre was attached, and as the spindle revolved the hook twisted
the fibre into cord. The spinner, with an apron full of the fibre,
walked backwards, away from the revolving hook, feeding out the fibre
as required and seeing it was of the needed thickness. Some of the
rope or cord thus made was dyed a pleasing brown color, and then was
woven on a loom, as primitive as was the spinning-wheel, into
doormats, which I used, with great satisfaction, for several years.
Soon after the Palatinguas were settled at Pala, the Sybil Carter
Association of New York introduced to them, with the full consent of
the government officials, the art of Spanish lace-making. In a recent
newspaper article it is thus lauded: "Ancient craft [Basket-making] of
Pala Indians Gives Place to More Artistic Handiwork." This is a very
absurd statement, for wherein is the work of lace-making more
_artistic_ than basket-making. In the article that follows our
newspaper friend tells us candidly that the creative spirit is still
alive in the manufacture of basketry:
They use the natural grasses and no artificial coloring. _No
two baskets are alike_, though the mountain, lightning flash,
star, tree, oak-leaf, and snake designs are most common.
The italics are mine. Our writer then goes on to say of the
lace-making:
The little ten-year old school-child and the grandmother now
sit side by side weaving the intricate figures with deft
hands and each receives fair compensation for the finished
product. It takes sharp eyes and supple fingers to produce
this lace, _but no originality_, for the Venetian point,
Honiton, Torchon, Brussels, Cluny, Milano, Roman Cut-Work and
Fillet patterns are supplied by the government teacher, Mrs.
Edla Osterberg.
[Illustration: The Fiesta Procession, Leaving the Chapel for the
Headgate of the Irrigation Ditch.]
[Illustration: Pala Indian Women Dancing at the Fiesta.]
Again the italics are mine. There is no comparison in the art work of
basketry and that of lace-making, yet it is a good thing the latter
has been introduced. It brings these poor people money easier and
quicker than basket-making, and, as they must earn to live, it aids
them in the struggle for existence.
In the lace work-room, the last time I was there, thirty-nine weavers
in all, varying from bright-eyed children of seven years, to aged
grandmothers, were intently engaged upon the delicate work. The
bobbins were being twisted and whirled with incredible rapidity and
sureness, in the cases of the most expert, and all were as interested
as could possibly be.