FEBRUARY, 1951 35 CENTS - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

Miss Cory's painting of the Hopi Feather Ceremony. Photo by Charles Troncy.
—fine ends for sweeping the floor,
butt end for the hair—and the Ushaped
stick on which the whorls of
hair are wound; also her Hopi dress.
Hair-do arranged and picturesquely
costumed, the Hopi maiden was ready
for her portrait. Miss Cory did a good
drawing and was all set for the application
of color when some youngsters
peered into the window, making the
woman nervous. The artist shooed
them off, but they returned and urgently
beckoned the woman to go outside.
When she came back she declared:
"The womans say I must not
have my picture made with my hair
like unmarried girl, and they are very
angry with me. They say if I do not
take it down they will come in and do
it themselves."
Fortunately the painting had gone
far enough for completion later, so,
without arguing, Miss Cory told the
woman to let her hair down. The
finished picture is one of the most
attractive in the artist's possession.
The finest tribute that came to Kate
FEBRUARY, 195 1
Cory in Hopiland was admission into
the kivas, a privilege rarely granted
to white people, and almost unthinkable
in the case of a woman. Her
knowledge has been placed at the
disposal of the Smoki People of Prescott,
white professional and business
people, who interpret Indian lore in
ceremonial dances every August and
regularly stage the Hopi Snake Dance,
with which she is intimately acquainted
through witnessing it among the Hopis.
In her Prescott home, with its panorama
of mountains seen through wide
windows. Miss Cory has constant reminders
in paintings, photographs and
notes made when she lived in Hopiland
from 1905 to 1912. One of her
large paintings depicts a band of Indians
traveling across the desert,
guided, she believes, by pictographs
incised in a rock by other travelers
who had passed before. That picture
she titled, "This Was the Way,' and
it has value in showing the signpost
method employed by Indians in steering
travel in otherwise directionless
wastes. Paintings such as this have
served to enlarge the white man's
knowledge of the First Americans.
They are the outcome of happy years
with a friendly people.
SHOULD GRASS "REPLACE
FORESTS OF MESQUITE?
Grass will not flourish on laiids
heavily wooded by mesquite trees—
and this fact has given rise to a controversy
among Arizona cattlemen.
Some of the stockmen defend the
mesquite trees on the ground that they
furnish shade for cattle, and their beans
provide nourishing food in dry years
when there is little grass.
Other members of the cattle fraternity
hold that the range is more
valuable when the trees are removed
and the land seeded to grass.
Experts are at work trying to determine
the best combination of mesquite
trees and grasses for range purposes.
It is estimated there are 7,000,000
acres of mesquite lands in southern
Arizona, and 8,000,000 acres in
southern New Mexico.