(Walter Ufer DESCRIPTION OF FRIEZE continued from 1945.1.3)

THE NORTH WALL – THE DEER DANCE

This picture I have depicted in the center of the North Wall showing the spirits dressed in white, to the left and right of the group of Indians representing this dance, and besides I show Indian women in their native costumes as spectators. Behind this dance, I show one of their pueblos and to the right of the North Wall I show the other, and between these two pueblos, I show a mountain stream which is also an actual fact in the Taos pueblo. Behind it all as a setting and nearly in the center of the panel, I show the famous Taos Peak which is in itself nearly 13,000 feet high. I show bread ovens at various places in this panel such as you find in that country among the Indians, as well as their building out of adobe. To explain the definition of adobe—it is made from earth mixed with water, using chopped straw as a binder and then sun baked. The Taos pueblos or their city, stands today just as the Spaniards found them in the latter part of the 16^th century. It goes to show what a permanent thing one can build with adobe. To the left of this panel I show a portion of their corrals and the continuation of this mountain range.

In making this decoration, I have taken the liberty to paint my figures strong and definitely in the foreground, showing a little detail in the buildings and defining my mountain range strong and full of color against the sky, and in doing this, I give to the buildings or pueblos, a holy feeling. The female figures that I show in front of the pueblos I have treated so as to give the effect that these strange people came out of these tombs. The yellow foliage that I show in this frieze, and the rest of them, are New Mexican cottonwoods that we find plentiful in that country.