Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, with a Few Observations by J. Frank (James Frank) Dobie
page 38 of 247 (15%)
page 38 of 247 (15%)
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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 assimilated 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 |
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