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and an Innovative Use of Indian Art Harper and Brothers published The Indians' Book in 1907. Though praised for its accuracy and insight, the new work was popular especially for its design. Curtis wrote out the songs in an attractive handwritten form with painstakingly recorded musical transcription. She used photos and authentic Indian art. Angel DeCora (Hinook Mahiwi Kilinaka), a Winnebago artist, designed the lettering for the 18 title pages that appear at the beginning of each section of The Indians' Book. She adapted her lettering to the decorative style of each tribe or culture group. DeCora was educated at Hampton Institute and Smith College and studied under Howard Pyle, who called her a genius. She first became known for the illustrations she created for books of Indian stories. According to Natalie Curtis, though, her friend Angel DeCora's real ability lay in decorative design. The innovative title page designs for The Indians' Book came about in an unexpected way. To provide designs for the section title pages, Curtis had collected original artwork on paper from contributors of many tribes. She asked DeCora to make a design for the Winnebago title page. DeCora created a beadwork design for the page as requested, but she also included the words "Lake Indians -- Winnebago" in lettering that matched the rest of the design. Curtis described the lettering as "beautiful" and of "startling originality." "We can't have one page looking like this and the others labeled with prosaic printing!" said the publisher. "We must have this sort of lettering all through the book." So Harper commissioned DeCora to produce the same lettering for all the other title pages. However, Curtis wrote later, when DeCora finished her work, "we found to our astonishment that the lettering was not in the least like that with which Angel had decorated the Winnebago section. She had invented a different kind of lettering for every Indian picture, and the forms of the letters were composed of motifs from the drawings which they accompanied."8 The Kwakiutl title page on page 295, for example, is composed from two separate pencil drawings by Klalish (Charles James Nowell). Klalish's drawings are a grizzly bear and a killer whale, beautiful examples of Northwest Indian art. But DeCora's lettering so nearly matches the original artwork that the whole page looks like a single design. Angel DeCora and the other native art contributors deserve credit for the popular appeal of Curtis's book.
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