IN LATE November, the tenth anniversary show of the Heard Museum Guild's Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibition opened in Phoenix, with collectors and buyers from other states on the scene to quickly purchase the prize-winners as well as the non-prize entries. The eleven categories attracted Native American artists from the entire continent in both professional and student competitions.

The exhibition was a forerunner of a triple-treat during the holidays for Arizona's tourist trade. On December 11, the exhibit on "Survival: Life and Art of the Alaskan Eskimos" opened to run through January 22, and a week later "Kachinas: An Evolving Hopi Art Form?" began an exhibit extending through February 3.

The three shows are in the Heard's Museum's continuing dedication to bring the latest developments in Native American art, culture and lifestyle to its general public.

"Survival" is a comprehensive exhibit depicting the diversified art and culture of the Arctic people. Organized by the Newark Museum and the American Federation of Arts, and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the more than 200 objects date from prehistoric to present day items. Included are ivory carvings, sculptures, ceremonial masks, paintings, prints, household items, toys, tools, weapons, and clothing.

"Survival" depicts the forbidding environment of the Alaskan Eskimo, and the threat of today's society upon the traditional patterns of thousands of years which these people have retained and are struggling to keep.

The exhibit on Kachinas (of which the Heard has an excellent source in the Goldwater Collection) is an attempt to focus on the stylistic development of Kachinas through time and and the divergence from their original identification/functional use. Basically, it has been the economic gain in the sale of the Kachina dolls as craft items to tourists and collectors which has been responsible for the evolution of the dolls from static, information-bearing images to realistc, life-like copies of Hopi Kachina dancers.

The dolls, however, have maintained their traditional functions in the Hopi religion, unlike many other Native American crafts whose uses have changed.

In this year's arts and crafts exhibit, the following were judges in distributing the $7,000 award moneys: Helen Cordero, Cochiti Pueblo potter; Judy Rosenstock, collector; H. Thomas Cain, Curator of Anthropology, Heard Museum; Clifford Beek, Navajo artist; Charles Loloma, Hopi artist and craftsman; Tony Da San Ildefonso, artist and craftsman; and Robert Redbird, Kiowa artist.

The "best of show" award of $500 went to Frederick John Tekluk, Aleut, for the sculpture, "I Came from the Fish," which received another $100 from the Heard Men's Council.