BOOKSHELF

BOOKSHELF Southwestern Indian Baskets: Their History and Their Makers,

by Andrew Hunter Whiteford. School of American Research Press, Box 2188, Santa Fe, NM 87504. 1988. 219 pages. $18.95, softcover, plus $1.50 postage.

At the turn of the 20th century, many Indian women in Arizona and elsewhere made exquisitely decorated yet utilitarian baskets. Later, when native artisans found they could earn more money at other tasks, Indian basket-making declined. Fortunately, however, museum curators collected many of the finest specimens before they were lost.

Recently, several attractive books on Southwestern Indian basketry have appeared. This one is among the best. The author, an anthropologist and former research curator at the School of American Research, has used that institution's collection of almost 600 baskets as a foundation for his study. Many of the book's blackand-white and color photographs display the school's holdings, some dating from the early part of this century. Whiteford has also included a valuable and detailed catalog of this collection.

The book begins with a discussion of the history of basketry in western North America over a period of several thousand years. Traditional forms and techniques are described. Whiteford then devotes a chapter to each of the basket-producing tribes in the Southwest-Southern Paiutes, Navajos, Apaches, the Pai tribes, Pimans, and Pueblos (including the Hopis). These accounts trace the development of the art within each tribe, and explain how baskets have figured in the economic, religious, social, and aesthetic aspects of life.

Basketry has experienced a modern revival among most of these tribes. Whiteford documents this revitalization and identifies individual weavers in the forefront of the movement in a concluding chapter, "The State of the Art and Its Future."

Southwestern Indian Baskets is authoritative but nontechnical, with excellent illustrations and an extensive list of references. As part of a continuing series-School of American Research Studies in American Indian Artit is highly recommended.

The Laughing West,

edited by C. L. Sonnichsen. Ohio University Press, Scott Quadrangle, Room 223, Athens, OH 45701. 1988. 299 pages. $11.95, softcover; $24.95, hardcover, plus $2.00 postage.

No individual is better qualified to select and edit a humorous anthology about the American West than C. L. Sonnichsen. Professor Sonnichsen is a principal authority on both the West and humor. They should and do go together. Author Leslie Fiedler has observed, "To understand the West as somehow a joke comes a little closer to getting it straight."

The Laughing West consists of 21 selections of Western writing, from Dan Jenkins' Baja Oklahoma to Max Evans' hilarious saga of the problem horse, Old Fooler, taken from The Rounders. Larry L. King, inspired by his small-town Texas upbringing, contributes the portrait of the clever clown Governor Cullie Blanton, from his book The One-Eyed Man.

It's all here, from Indian chief to the all-hat-and-no-heifer cowboy. The Laughing West is the biggest blast in these parts since they touched off that memorable one at White Sands. by John McPhee. Photographs by Tom Till. Gibbs Smith, Publisher, Box 667, Layton, UT 84041. 1988. 144 pages. $34.95, hardcover, plus $2.00 postage.

OUTCROPPINGS,

The beauty of this book may deceive you. It is not just another color photography book but a duet of artists attuned to the Great Basin, the Rocky Mountains, and the Colorado Plateau. John McPhee, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, has published more than 20 books dealing with such diverse subjects as oranges, the Swiss army, and the geology of the American West. Outcroppings consists of excerpts from three of his finest works, Encounters with the Archdruid, Basin and Range, and Rising from the Plains. McPhee combines creative prose with academic credibility. Photographer Tom Till lives and works in Moab, Utah. He has been a frequent contributor to Arizona Highways, Omni, Sierra Magazine, and Wilderness. Till's photographs unveil the perpetual drama of nature. This book gives us the best of both men's considerable talents.