At the period of discovery, art, at a number of places on the American Continent, seems to have been developing surely and steadily through the force of the innate genius of the race, and the more advanced nations were already approaching the threshold of Civilization. Their methods were characterized by great simplicity and their art products are, as a consequence, exceptionally homogeneous. The advent of European civilization checked the current of growth, and new and conflicting elements were introduced necessarily disastrous to the native development. By supplementing the study of the prehistoric by that of historic art, we may hope to penetrate deeply into the secrets of the past.—WILLIAM H. HOLMES. Since the Ácoma potters are justly famous, a brief discussion of the ceramic art as practised by the Pueblo peoples is here introduced. In the determination of areas of material culture on the western continent, the cultivation of maize is particularly significant and widespread. Coextensive with maize growing is found some form of pottery. Since botanical evidence makes certain that the art of maize cultivation arose south of the Rio Grande,[255] we are safe in assuming that the art of pottery also originated beyond that region. [Illustration: ÁCOMA GIRL RETURNING FROM THE RESERVOIR THE PLAIN STRETCHES IMMEASURABLY FAR TO THE MOUNTAIN HORIZON _Bolton_] No account of Indian civilization can be attempted without some mention, however brief, of an art through which much of the development and kinship of the tribes may be traced. The sketch which I shall attempt to make here is largely based on the laborious and distinguished researches of Mr. F. H. Cushing and Dr. W. H. Holmes, which are to be found for the most part in the “Annual Reports” of the Bureau of Ethnology. It is regrettable that such valuable aids to study are not accessible in other form. The study of the pottery of the prehistoric pueblos, as I have said, furnishes one of the best clues to their inter-relationships, and the first idea of students was that it must also throw much light upon their racial origins. Further investigation, however, taught that the laws which govern the migration of races do not regulate the distribution of the arts. Not only do the arts follow a pathway of their own, but one which often conflicts with that of race-migration. They pass from place to place or from people to people by a process of acculturation, so that peoples of unlike origin practise like arts, while those of like origin, are found practising unlike arts.[256] At the period of their discovery by Spain the Village Indians were living in the stone age, and they used, for the most part, stone tools; their religious symbols are therefore found on axes and knives as well as on pottery, or interwoven in baskets and blankets.