INDIAN RAWHIDE BOOK

Mable Morrow, like the Indian women of whom she writes in Indian Rawhide: An American Folk Art, is a superb craftswoman. A lifetime devoted to learning Indian skills in many fields has resulted in a breadth and depth of knowledge and deftness that mean from Florida to Canada, from Montana to Mexico, one thing: the words "Miss Morrow" open doors that might otherwise be forever closed.

Not only does this book tell of the preparation and many uses of rawhide; also it provides glimpses of Indian life, particularly Plains Indian life, that can be found nowhere else. It is safe to say that whatever one's specialized field of interest, it will be impossible to write of Indian life in the future without reference to this book. Its view of the life of Indian women, of their philosophy of teaching and child training, can never again be recorded.

Only one who has worked with Miss Morrow in the field, who has watched her go into an isolated community where she had no common language and go to work on a local craft, can comprehend what she has done here. Indian women surround her at such times, and she learns from them and they from her the particular skill of the area.

Mable Morrow was associated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior during her rich and full career. She now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she was formerly Director of Arts and Crafts in the Bureau of Indian Affairs school, now the Institute of American Indian Arts.