The North American Indian, Vol. 1Curtis, Edward S.
History
The North American Indian, Vol. 1
Curtis, Edward S.
Indians of North America
The graphic art of the Apache finds expression chiefly in ceremonial
paintings on deerskin, and in basketry. Only rarely have they made
pottery, their roving life requiring utensils of greater stability. Such
earthenware as they did make was practically the same as that of the
Navaho, mostly in the form of small cooking vessels. Usually the pictures
are painted on the entire deerskin, but sometimes the skin is cut square,
and at others ceremonial deerskin shirts are symbolically painted.
Occasionally the Apache attempts to picture the myth characters literally;
at other times only a symbolic representation of the character is made. In
addition to the mythic personages, certain symbols are employed to
represent the incident of the myth. These paintings are made under the
instruction of a medicine-man and are a part of the medicine
paraphernalia. On some skins the most sacred characters in Apache
mythology are represented symbolically—Nayé̆nĕzganĭ, the War God;
Tubadzĭschí̆nĭ, his younger brother; Kútĕrastan, the Creator of All;
Stĕnátlĭhăn, the chief goddess. In fact the symbolism on an elaborately
painted deerskin may cover every phase of Apache cosmology.
In their basketry the Apache women display great taste in form, and in
their more superior work employ much symbolic decoration. Since the
beginning of the present "messiah craze" all baskets display the sacred
symbols believed to have been revealed to Das Lan by Chuganaái Skhĭn—a
combination of the cross and the crescent. There are many baskets, made
before this new religious wave swept over the tribe, into which the
symbolism has since been woven.
The basket most used is the _tú̆tza_, or burden basket, roughly and
loosely woven, ornamented with circular lines as often painted on as woven
in. Previous to a messiah craze, which had its origin with the Apache
about 1901, the designs in these baskets were purely decorative, without
attempt at symbolism; but now, by order of a crafty old medicine-man,
every _tú̆tza_ must display the combined cross and crescent.
The _tus_ is a water bottle, made invariably of withes of the aromatic
sumac, loosely woven, and coated inside and out with piñon gum. To use
material other than sumac would be considered very bad. In the Apache
deluge myth the people, instructed by Stĕnátlĭhăn, built a monster _tus_
of piñon branches in which they floated away.
The _tsa-naskú̆dĭ_ is a bowl or tray-shaped basket of splendid form, with
symbolic decoration of intricate pattern.
The most pretentious basket is the _tus-naskú̆dĭ_, in general form like
the _tus_, but much larger; it is used for the storage of grain. Its lines
are most beautiful, as are also its inwoven symbolic designs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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