Indian Stories from the Pueblos

 "Indian Stories from the Pueblos" Frank Applegate. 

You might think, by the title, that this book is a collection of traditional Pueblo stories. In fact, the book is a collection of story\essays along with some contemporary (1929) stories of daily Pueblo life. Frank Applegate's wrote the essays and retold the stories of Pueblo Indians from the time he was living and painting in New Mexico, around 1929. He starts the first story/essay admitting that he doesn't quite understand the Pueblo sense of humor, and that they also don't seem to understand his. He comes to the story-telling with a certain amount of bemusement, but a lot of love and respect. The essays are humble, from the artists who stayed in the snake dance leader's hut, only to be surprised by unexpected and scary visitors--and how the artists and Pueblos interpreted the resulting mayhem in very different ways, to the gentle story of domestic upset and resolution between Percival and the wise woman Ethel. The book itself is pretty, with nice illustrations---and he is careful to include the name of the artist.