The student of American ceramics accepts the theory prevailing to-day to the effect that the aborigines of this continent came from Asia, not all at once but in successive migrations, bringing with them customs and arts from many different sources at many different times; and our hope to-day is that the modifications brought about by the meeting and mingling of these various migratory streams will be finally made clear through the patient work of the experts as new ceramic “finds” are unearthed throughout the continent. [Illustration: THE GUARDIAN CLIFFS OF ÁCOMA _Bolton_] L’ENVOI In taking our leave of the Republic of Ácoma, seated haughtily aloof upon her stony citadel, certain reflections grow imperious. Emerging from the shadows of legendary origins to the historic past, already a dim and distant background, we may please our fancy with poetic and picturesque, or heroic episodes, while recognizing that the flowing tide of civilization has inevitably swept away some that was admirable, along with more that was brutal and savagely impossible to retain. The sources of Ácoma’s life story, as of other Indian communities, are three. First, we have all that has been carefully garnered and interpreted for us by the anthropologists. This is chiefly concerned with pre-Columbian or pre-Spanish days. Since the American domination, government officials and visitors to all the pueblos have added much of value and interest. There remains an almost untouched treasure in the vast number of records kept through nearly three centuries by Spanish priests and chroniclers. The padres in particular saw the Indian as he _is_ in his daily occupations, in his mind, in his traditional worship, as well as in his warrior adventuring. When these shall have received due recognition from students of the Southwest, we may begin to hope that we shall understand the First Americans. Looking at Ácoma as symbolic of all Indian “city-states,” are we not forced to admit that the white invader has pretty completely blotted out one type of the human family? So altered are the fragmentary remains of its religious and its social organization that they appear to be hardly more significant to the white onlooker than is any picturesque pageant; while to the Indian himself they must be rather a poor imitation of his traditional ceremonial. It is too late to ask whether or not white conquest could have been less cruel, but surely our reconstruction might have been less ruthless.