dance. I took the opportunity of checking my observation of the Shongopovi snake dance with Apache. Among the many things he told me the most important are the following; (1) the timing of the dance depends on when the first rays of the rising sun strike a certain landmark. (2) The snake dance goes through a nine-day cycle. What we saw was the final day. (3) The snakes are collected well before the ninth day, from areas marked off in cardinal directions, east, west, north and south. (4) One should avoid meeting a snake collector when he is gathering snakes. The penalty is to hand over to him valuables, money or food. (5) The snakes are returned roughly to the same areas from which they were collected. (6) When the snakes curl up under rocks it is thought that they are in contact with the underworld. (7) When the dancers tramp the ground in front of the snake-house, called a kīsi, they strike a board, which is connected with a drain-like connection, called a sipapu, to the kiva. This underground channel is thought to be connected with the underworld, that is, with the Indian's version of the Maori Rarohenga. (8) Some of the young snake dancers are undergoing their final initiation tests for kiva membership. (9) The initiates usually handle the largest snakes. (10) The snake dancer's partner is referred to as the ‘hugger’, and his job is to hold the attention of the snake by waving his feather wand. Such, then, were the Indian activities which we saw while in the Southwest. There is little in the Maori experience which prepares one to observe the Indians, their way of life and the land upon which they dwell. The Indians are brown-skinned but their costumes and manner of dressing have always been totally different from that of the New Zealand Maori. The objects and ornaments made by the Indians are part of a different world view and are based on a natural environment nothing like the temperate zone of New Zealand. The agricultural pursuits of the two peoples were centred around a different crop; whereas the Indians were essentially corn-growers the Maoris were sweet-potato cultivators. The Indians and the Maoris, however, share one feature in common. They are both minority groups. Consequently, some of the problems

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they face today are the same. What is of particular interest to Maori observers is to see how another minority group, in this case, the Southwest Indians of the United States, faces and meets the challenges of the present situation. Here we cannot avoid the temptation of comparing notes because we are part of the situation. A comparison of the progress made by the two minority groups, bearing in mind their different histories and circumstances, leads us to conclude that the New Zealand Maori should be proud of what he has accomplished. As a minority group the Maori has made tremendous strides which tend to be overlooked and overshadowed by the emphasis on present shortcomings. By contrast, the Southwest Indians appear to be more hesitant about reaching out into the Pakeha world. This hesitancy, however, does not apply to Pakeha technology. The Indians are just as keen on cars, trucks, refrigerators and television sets as the New Zealand Maoris. Their caution springs from their fear that the Pueblo social and religious order will be destroyed by the Great Society if they do not contain it. The Pueblo Indians have succeeded in retaining much of their social organisation and a great deal of their religious and ritual practices. The corn dances and the Hopi snake dance we saw are evidence of this. They have managed to stem the disruptive inroads of the Great Society over a much longer period of contact than is the case in New Zealand. In this respect they are much more successful than the New Zealand Maori and it could well be that they have lessons to offer the Maori. Actually, there is much that one group can learn from the other. It would be to the mutual benefit of both minority groups if cultural inter-changes could be arranged between the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest and the Maoris of New Zealand. The