MUSEUM ACQUISITION FOR 1935
by
Don Watson

During the winter of 1934-35 a number of new exhibits were placed in the museum that seem to be drawing favorable comment from the visitors. Some of the work was done by members of the regular staff, some by E.C.W. men from our camps, and some by F.E.R.A. workers who were employed for a time. The new exhibits all tend to round out the story of the people who once made their homes in this region.

The outstanding exhibit is a miniature habitat group showing the Late Basketmaker Indians as they lived in Step House Cave about fourteen hundred years ago. This miniature was constructed by two of the E.C.W. boys, Kenneth Ross and Meredith Guillet, under the supervision of Park Naturalist Franke, and the work is based upon our knowledge of these people as gained from excavations all over the region, particularly from the excavation of Step House Cave itself.

This cave was discovered about 1890 by the Wetherill brothers and received its name from a broad flight of steps that led from the cave to the mesa top. In 1891 the Wetherills guided Baron Nordenskiold, the Swedish explorer to the cave and his digging almost brought this then unrecognized culture to light. He dug in the small cliff dwelling in the north end of the cave and did some digging in the cliff dweller refuse in the south end, but the deep layer of trash prevented his finding the pit houses underneath. Nordenskiold did recognize a strange type of plain gray pottery but did not realize that it was a clew to a new culture.

In 1926 Jesse L. Nusbaum, then Park Superintendent, excavated the south end of the cave, and under the deep layer of cliff dweller trash found the three pit houses that had sheltered the Basket Makers many hundreds of years before. A piece of charcoal in one of the houses gave a tree ring date of 612 A.D. so the cave was probably occupied during the seventh and eighth centuries.

The Basket Makers have been divided into two groups, early and late. The early Basket Makers were the first Indians of the region to become farmers and their culture is notable for its lack of pottery, a definite house structure, and the bow and arrow. After a short period of sedentary living development took place and we find the Late Basket Makers building pit houses, using the bow and arrow, and substituting pottery for the fine basketry that had formerly been used for all household purposes.

These Late Basket Makers are the ones shown in the new habitat group.

The south end of Step House Cave has been reconstructed in miniature. Papier maché was modelled and painted until an exact replica of the cave resulted. The canyon wall in front of the cave, with all its vegetation, is shown, and the opposite side of the canyon and the sky are painted on the inner surface of a half-dome background that encloses the group.

In the cave are thirteen of the Basket Makers at their daily tasks. The figures have been executed in wax, the adults being about four inches high, the smallest babe less than an inch. In the end of the cave is one of the pit houses that the people have been living in for some time, but beside it is a half-finished pit house on which some of the men are working. One is placing the roof poles, another is plastering with mud, while a third is sharpening his axe on a nearby stone before going up to the mesa top for more timbers. Near the front of the cave one man is instructing his son in the use of the bow and arrow: nearby another man is making these weapons. Two of the squaws are making the plain gray pottery characteristic of the period, while another, evidencing the fact that house cleaning was in vogue even at that early date, is throwing a basket of trash down the slope in front of the cave. One of the squaws is cooking and the gleaming fire may be seen under the boiling pot. One tiny baby, strapped to its cradle is leaning against the wall of the house, while another, a little larger, is crawling across the floor of the cave to join its mother at the fire.

It is a scene such as we feel might have been witnessed in Step House Cave when the Late Basket Makers enjoyed the shelter of its great arch. All of the objects reproduced have been found during excavations of Late Basket Maker sites and every effort has been made to picture faithfully the lives of these people.

The pottery type case has been changed to show more clearly the variations in the ceramic art in the culture areas of the Southwest. On the back of the case a map, sixty by ninety inches in size, has been painted, showing the Southwestern area with its river drainages and the nine culture areas as defined by Dr. A.V. Kidder in 1924. Sitting on tiny shelves in their proper relative positions are examples of the principal pottery types of each area. This presentation of the pottery itself in its proper place on the map seems to give the visitor a better chance for a comparison of the ceramic arts of the various pueblo peoples.

While doing repair work in Ruin No. 20-1/2 a skeleton was found that showed evidence of an unusual healed fracture.

The skeleton was that of a young woman who was just cutting her wisdom teeth: evidently about twenty years of age. In some manner she had broken her right femur, perhaps in a fall over the cliff as she was carrying water home from the spring. Instead of healing together in a normal position the broken ends of the bone slipped past each other about two inches and healed together side by side. A strong union resulted but the right leg was about two inches shorter than the left. This unusual bone is now on display in the museum.

Some of the E.C.W. boys working on a landscaping crew dug up an unusual "duck jar" near Far View House and this has been put on display. The "duck jars" are so named because of their marked resemblance to birds. The one in question is small, only four inches in length, hut it is of the best black-on-white ware. The body is very bird-like, with a pert turned up tail, but extremely un-bird-like are the well developed breasts. The neck is short and bears no evidence of a head or tail as is often the case. A small handle is attached to the back. The jar was found with a few scattered bones so it was evidently a burial accompaniment as is usually the case.

To the ladle exhibit a half-gourd has been added to show the evolution of the ladle from the half-gourd type to the bowl-and-handle type. The first ladles seem to have been perfect imitations of half gourds with the grooved handle sloping down into the bowl. A later type shows a rim developing between the handle and the bowl and after a time the grooved handle no longer connected with the bowl but was merely stuck on the outside of it. Later the grooved handle was abandoned in favor of a long, round handle. Sometimes this was tubular with a pebble inside for a rattle, sometimes it was perforated with a row of holes giving a flute-like appearance.

In order to put more life into one of the Navaho blanket cases a half-woven blanket on its loom has been added along with all of the tools used by the weaver. The blanket was woven especially for the exhibit by a young squaw who lives near Shiprock New Mexico. She was instructed as to the size of the blanket and was told to weave a blanket of the old type, without a border or any of the other modern innovations. The result is a charming blanket of unusually fine texture, with the so-called "sky terrace" design very cleverly worked in with red, yellow, gray, black and white yarns. Commercial dyes were used but the yarn is native. The loom stands in the case surrounded by all of the weaving tools, just as though the weaver had stepped out for a moment, and with the various appliances labled it gives the visitor a splendid idea of how the Navaho blanket comes into being.

A number of mounted birds have been put on display in order to show the visitors some of the common birds of the park. Twenty-five specimens are exhibited in a case in the rear room of the museum and it is hoped that other specimens may be added from time to time.

Recent acquisitions

A number of private collections of Indian material have recently been given to the Park Museum.

Within a very few years after the ruins of the Mesa Verde were discovered Dr. S.M. Bradbury, a Grand Junction dentist, made a collection of ancient material from the Montezuma Valley which lies just north and west of the park. This collection was donated to the Park in February by Mrs. J.P. Johnson of Grand Junction. Consisting of over one hundred arrowpoints, knives and scrapers, a number of stone axes, several pieces of pottery, and some modern Ute and Sioux pipes, gaming pieces and arrows, it makes a valuable addition to our collection.

About 1890, when a large irrigation ditch was being dug near Cortez, Colo. a number of interesting artifacts were found that have since been housed in the Montezuma County Courthouse. This collection was recently given to the Park by Mr. C.M. Rauh of Cortez, and consists of a skull, one sandal last, a number of bowls, pitchers and ladles, several stone axes and hammers, two cradle side-boards, several pieces of matting and cording, and a large box of unusual geological specimens.

Mr. Carl W. Schalles of Durango recently donated eight pieces of Late Basket Maker pottery and a Basket Maker skull. The skull had received unusual treatment by Mr. Schalles and is causing much controversy among the people who see it. Being a mortician Mr. Schalles has a good idea of the structure of the human head, so by using modeling clay as a medium he has replaced the flesh on one half of the skull. A front view shows the right side of the skull bare but the left side covered with flesh, while the left profile shows the Basket Maker as Mr. Schalles thought he once looked. The work and the idea are exceedingly clever but many heated arguments result as to the looks of the man who once wore the skull.

Early this Spring thirty five members of the Senior class from the Santa Fé Indian School visited the Park, and, after enjoying the ruins during the day entertained us during the evening with a program of unusually fine Indian dances and song. A few days ago a beautiful hand carved case containing ninety arrow and spear points was received at the museum. The enclosed card read: "Please accept these arrowpoints from Central Texas as a token of our appreciation for a lovely day." Santa Fé Indian School Seniors, 1935.

Mr. Arthur Newcomb of Newcomb, New Mexico recently donated three fine pieces of pottery that he had found near some old ruins a few miles from his trading post.