As a child, Barbara Stinson wanted to be an

As a child, Barbara Stinson wanted to be an Indian, and she played at being a cowboy.

She spent her summer vacations in the West at camps for girls, and returned as a teen-ager to work as a wrangler at those same camps. And -all year long, she saved her allowance and the money she earned from baby-sitting and odd jobs. She would spend it during those summer vacations, buying things the Indians had made. •- Today, those mementos of trips to the Southwest and the rugs, jewelry, pottery, baskets, kachinas, .musical instruments and miniatures ■ she’s added in the intervening 50 years add up to a major collection of Native American art. ■ > During her almost annual trips to the Southwest for a half-century, Mrs. Stinson has learned much about Indian art and crafts and much about their philosophy and life style. She has lived with a Hopi family. She’s seen the Apache puberty ceremony at Cibeque, Navaho squaw dances and sings, Rio Grande Pueblo dances, the snake dance ceremony and the dawn races on the Hopi mesas.

Mrs. Stinson will share both her knowledge of Indian ways and Indian art and selected pieces from her collection at a special slide show, talk and mini-exhibit sponsored by the Middle Street Gallery on Friday, Feb. 17.

Mrs. Stinson’s collection, One Woman's West, has been exhibited at museums from Daytona Beach, Fla., to Sturgeon Bay, Wis., as well as being displayed frequently in the Southwestern states.

“It reflects the taste, the interest and the love of the West of one person who was guided and encouraged by family and by knowledgeable Western friends, artists and traders,” she said, modestly ducking praise for her acumen as a collector.

“The magic of the West has always been a part of my life. In the summer of 1949, I made my first trip ,to northeastern Arizona,” Mrs. Stin