American Indians in Britain. (Report from Europe).

T he American Museum in Britain, which was founded in 1961 and occupies a Regency country house outside Bath, is dedicated to showing art and artifacts from the United States. This summer's exhibition, on view until November 3, is entitled The North American Indian: As Varied as the Land and is drawn entirely from the museum's collection.

The premise of the show is twofold. The first is that American Indian culture is not homogeneous but rather as varied as the land on which it thrived. The second is that the images that come initially to mind--particularly to Britons--are conjured from books and films.

The major part of the exhibition is divided geographically The first section is devoted to California, where the Spanish missionaries devastated the native population by uprooting them from their villages, exploiting them for labor within the missions, and depleting much of the agricultural resources. The acorn harvest was an important ritual, for acorns were an important part of the Indians' diet. The vegetation also provided splints from which the Indians wove baskets, which were considered vital for religious use. They were also used to store food and they represented life itself, since infants were carried in them.

On the Great ...