MESA LAND The History and Romance of the American Southwest [SOLD]

MESA LAND The History and Romance of the American Southwest 

by Anna Wilmarth Ickes

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York

Hardback, no slipcover, first edition, 1933.  236 pages

CONTENTS

I General

II History

III History of the Navajo

IV The Navajo Today

V Dead Cities

VI Pueblos

VII Zuni

IX Tusayan: The Land of the Hopi

X The Snake Dance of the Hopi

XI Acoma and Some Others

XII Eagles and Snakes

From the Foreword

“When a new comer enters the enchanting region of the Southwest he is plunged into an environment so different from any previously experienced that former standards of appreciation are inadequate, and it takes time to form new ones.

“There must be new standards of beauty to appraise the scenery; desert distances, stretches devoid of greens and glowing with reds and violets; sharp outlines unsoftened by verdue, and piled masses of rock formations.  He must revamp his art standards to value the aboriginal art about him.  Even his ethical convictions must adapt to others founded on different premises if he is to accord just understanding to the actions and the outlook of the Indian.

“Unless he can so adapt he may see only ‘dirty natives,’ ‘crude’ artifacts, ‘barren’ prairies crossed by rough roads where soft beds, full bath-tubs, and good meals are far to seek.  Let such a traveler cling to the highroad and the comfortable Harvey Houses and he may be able to catch some of the glamour which lies all about him, but if he can disregard personal comfort and those previously acquired standards and open his eyes and his heart to this marvelous land and its mysterious dwellers he need never seek distant countries for interest historical, artistic or archeological.  All lie close at hand ready to repay the sympathetic observer a thousand fold.”