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PEOPLE WHO INTEREST US: NATALIE CURTIS,
THE "FRIEND OF THE INDIANS"
NATALIE CURTIS has probably done more
n any one other person to gather together Indian
k songs and put them on record in permanent form.
e winter she sang some of these melodies to a group
famous musicians then in New York City. At
end of the event a German court conductor cried,
              "These things are unique, wonderful! How      rich
 your country is in artistic material." Miss Curtis explained to them
 that not only were we losing this peculiar folklore music, but as a
 nation actually destroying it, and Miss Curtis knows a great deal
 about the Indians. Her preeminent call to fame is perhaps first
 through her book of American Indians. She calls it "The Indian's
 Book." In her preface she says, "The Indians are the authors of
this
 volume. The songs and stories are theirs; the drawings, cover design
 and title pages were made by them. The work of the recorder has
 been but the collecting, editing and arranging of the Indians' contri-
 butions." It would seem almost impossible that a person of an
 alien race could have so completely presented the Indian's religion,
 philosophy, poetry, romance and social attitude of mind as intimately
 as Miss Curtis has done. It was only possible by working with them,
 knowing them as friends, giving enthusiasm and winning confidence.
 The sonr's leoends, stories of this book are as genuine and beautiful
 as though heard from the mouths of great warriors around a camp-
 fire of peace. Miss Curtis belongs to a family of book lovers and
 writers. Her uncles, James Burrill Curtis and George William
 Curtis are a portion of the culture of America. They were among
 the noble company of brilliant minds at Brook Farm. And the old
 Curtis home on Washington Place had the honor of receiving Daniel
 Webster, Thackeray an many others of note who sought intellectual
 sympathy. Miss Curtis had a most thorough training in music with
 a pupil of Liszt, Arthur Friedheim, and also spent a most delightful
 musical year at Bayreuth, where a valued friendship sprang up with
 the Wagner family. Mr. Roosevelt has co°iperated most cordially
 with Miss Curtis in her work for the Indians, and her interest and
 enthusiasm for them is not limited to her now famous book. She
 has lectured widely in their behalf, has enlisted significant men and
 women as their champions, she has sung their songs and told their
 legends to win friends for them. She has been tireless in her efforts to
 create a sane attitude toward the education of the Indian, a training
 that will save and develop rather than destroy their art. Indeed, in
spite of her real gifts in music and literature, she is, though a young
woman, already best known as the Friend of the Indian.
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