# The American Indian/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III
THE TEXTILE ARTS
The subject now before us is far less intelligible to the layman than any of the preceding, chiefly because it deals with definite processes or crafts which must be mastered to be thoroughly understood. This cannot be expected even of professional anthropologists, who must necessarily be guided by the statements of textile experts. With such guidance we may, however, safely proceed to a general view of the subject.
There seem to be but four classes of textile fiber in general use: wool, bast, cotton, and silk. Of these, aboriginal America used all but the last. The sheep was not found here, but the hair of the Rocky Mountain goat was used in western Canada and also that of a dog bred for that purpose. In the bison area, particularly on the lower Mississippi, buffalo hair was spun. Mexico and Central America seem not to have used wool of any kind, no doubt because it was not available. The same may be said of Colombia and parts of Ecuador. As soon, however, as the range of the llama, vicuña and alpaca is reached, their respective wools come into use. Some archæological data indicate that at one time their use extended far down into Chile and out into Argentina.
Of bast fibers we have a respectable list. Even as far north as the caribou area willow bark was used. On the Pacific coast of Canada cedarbark fiber, and inland in the salmon area sagebrush bark were used, extending far down among the Shoshonean tribes of the United States. In California the plants Iris, Asolepias and Apocyrum were used for string twisting. In the bison area practically no bark fiber was used, but about the Great Lakes and eastward, basswood or linn bark was largely employed. Occasionally, cornhusk fiber was utilized. In southeastern United States, particularly on the lower Mississippi, the fibers of Indian hemp and ​pemmenaw grass were extensively used. In Arizona and New Mexico we find the maguey, extending down into Peru. In the remaining parts of South America there are a number of bast fibers in use. Thus, we may conclude that the use of bast fibers was general except among the highly specialized hunting peoples of the extreme North and South.
Cotton, though a vegetable fiber, is a wool rather than a bast. Fiber experts claim that it is only the cultivated varieties that can be successfully spun. Proceeding from north to south we first encounter cotton in the Pueblo area of the United States. That it was grown in what is now the great cotton belt of the United States is improbable, but from the Pueblo country down through Mexico to Peru, cotton was the great textile fiber. The known varieties were white and brown. In other parts of South America and the Antilles a little cotton was grown, chiefly to be used in making hammocks.
Taking a general view of the preceding facts, we note that the distribution of cotton culture is in the main coincident with the regions of higher culture; at least, it is not found among non-agricultural peoples. Wool fibers appear in three disconnected regions: around Peru, British Columbia, and the lower Mississippi. Bast fiber, on the other hand, is practically universal, but shows decided specialization in the several food areas.
One other class of fiber not generally recognized by us is sinew, or tendon. Among the Eskimo and the Indians of Canada it is of the greatest importance and also holds a high place in the bison area, the salmon area, and the northern part of the eastern maize area. In fact, when skin clothing is made, we find it in use, even in the guanaco area of South America.
SPINNING
The twisting of fiber into thread is the pre-requisite of the whole textile art. Its distribution over the world is as universal as the use of fire and its origin probably fully as remote. Though there is but one way to do it, twist the fibers one upon the other, the appliances vary considerably. The primitive way, and no doubt the first historically, is solely by hand. ​A more mechanical way is to give the twist by a spindle bearing a whorl.
Our first problem is to distinguish the different methods of spinning and state their respective distributions. In this we must proceed with hesitancy because of inadequate data, but since very little native spinning survives there is no ground for expecting important additions to our field observations. The subject is, therefore, ready for such comparative study as can be made. We have neither the time nor the special knowledge to do this now, but will discuss the most obvious points.
One of the most direct approaches is the distribution of the spindle whorl. Its known occurrence in North America is in the highlands from Panama to the Colorado River. Then with a break in continuity we find it in British Columbia and on the adjoining coast. The only other place where there is even a suspicion of its use is the lower Mississippi. This conjecture is based upon the bare mention of an improvised affair, a wad of clay upon a stick, by an early writer.
Archæological data are on the whole consistent with the foregoing facts, from which their general finality may be assumed. Pre-Columbian sites yielding undoubted spindle whorls must be our safest criteria, because we lack definite knowledge as to the exact state of spinning before white contact, and it is conceivable that the use of the European whorl could have been introduced quickly, as we have already noted in case of the horse. Peru presents a puzzling case, for notwithstanding the high development of the art, the early historical data indicate the absence of a true whorl, and objects of this nature are seldom found in excavating. However, in the northern part of the Andean region, pottery objects resembling whorls are frequent. In other parts of South America they are rare, but the modern natives use them. If we try to correlate the distribution of the whorl with that for fibers, we note that it is wanting in the distinctively bast and sinew areas. Where cotton, wool or both together are spun, we find the whorl, unless Peru should prove to be an exception.
Outside of the whorl area we have defined, bast and sinew thread are given the final twist by rolling under the palm of ​the hand, usually upon the bare thigh or calf of the leg. (The peculiar slit skirt of the Algonkin and Iroquois is regarded as a hand spinner's costume by Parker. A twisting appliance has, however, been noted for the Eskimo.
But to return to our subject. The methods of preparing fibers for spinning differ with the materials, but after they are separated and cleaned, all must be carded, or extended
Fig. 14. Ancient Mexican and Egyptian Drawings of Spinners. The first shows the prevailing New World method. There is some doubt as to what part of the process is represented in the Egyptian figure, but the draft, or tension, is supplied according to the Old World method
Fig. 15. A Navajo Spinner
​the shortness and other characteristics of the fiber. In this case, the fiber must be made into a roving and then twisted from each end under the necessary draft, or tension. Thus, in the New World, we find that wherever cotton or wool are spun, a stick or spindle is used to facilitate the twist and to wind the finished thread. In Europe, spinning was by the whorl and distaff method; the spindle, being provided with a whorl or fly-wheel, was twirled and dropped, its weight providing the draft, and the momentum of the whorl the twist. There is yet no reason to believe that this method was practised in the New World before its discovery, the draft here being given by a pull of the hands, the spindle resting in a bowl on the ground, or simply held in the hands. The New World whorl is, therefore, not a true whorl, and was often dispensed with, as seems to have been the case in parts of Peru.
The uniformity of the aboriginal method of spinning cotton is clear when we compare such studies as Roth's for the less cultured peoples of South America with the processes used in Old Peru. On this account we are scarcely left any other alternative than to conclude that the cotton complex of the entire New World is essentially one, as is the maize complex (p. 28), and that it was likewise diffused from a single center. Just what may be the relation between the wool and cotton complexes is not clear, for we have the salmon area peoples spinning wool and not cotton, and again the buffalo-hair spinning of the Mississippi Valley. As to how the latter was spun, we have no precise data, but in the salmon area a form of the characteristic New World spindle method was used. Cotton could not be raised there, obviously.
NETTING
The making of string readily suggests nets, a form of textile almost as world-wide as fiber twisting. Accompanying the art are two implements: the shuttle and the mesh gauge. Unfortunately, no careful study of the net technique and the distribution of the implements is available, but one who reads Rau's searching paper on modes of fishing will see at a glance the importance of the problem. First, the manner of tying ​the meshes of the net is very much the same everywhere. This may be because the trait is as old and fundamental as the firedrill or merely due to the fact that there is but one good way by which a net can be formed. In the absence of investigation, speculation on this point is useless, yet we seem to have here an unusually promising subject for weighing the relative merits of the independent origin and diffusion theories of culture.
In the New World, fish nets seem to have been in use, wherever possible, from Cape Horn to Alaska and their antiquity is vouched for by the excavation of notched pebbles used as sinkers. Stefánsson, however, secured archæological data from the northernmost coast of Alaska and western Canada, indicating that nets were of relatively recent introduction among the Eskimo of those districts. In view of the data supporting their antiquity elsewhere and their present universal distribution, this appears as a localized exception.
The netting shuttle and mesh gauge are found chiefly in North America where they have a continuous distribution with Siberia and adjacent parts of the Old World. The precise forms of eastern Siberia are found in Alaska, but as we move southward along the coast toward California, the forms show more variation, as also eastward over the Great Lake area. So far, such implements have not been reported from South America, where nets are frequently made of cotton and woven upon a frame, as is the case with hammocks. The most recent contribution to the subject is Moore's theory that the so-called bannerstone found east of the Mississippi is a mesh gauge.
The closely allied techniques of lace making and tatting are found in many parts of the great cotton-using area, but have not been studied in detail.
BASKETRY
It is doubtful if any people exist who do not understand the art of intertwining twigs or other elements; likewise most of them show some conception of basketry. Even such an extreme marginal group as the Tasmanians made some progress ​with it, and in the New World it is difficult to find groups of tribes entirely innocent of the art. About the only localities without basketry are among the eastern Eskimo, and parts of
Fig. 16. Basketry: Straight Weave; Close and Open Twine; and Coil
the bison and guanaco areas, all specialists in skin work.
The subject has received a great deal of attention and that great master of material culture, O. T. Mason, has left us an excellent treatise. Our museums have extensive collections, ​while those of private students are equally rich; there is also an abundant literature. Notwithstanding all this, the subject presents many unsolved problems.
Baskets can be readily classified as woven or coiled (sewed). The basic concepts for these different classes seem to have nothing in common, from which it is fair to assume that they have separate histories. Under these heads many techniques may be distinguished.
From our point of view, coiled basketry reaches its highest development in California, where the Pomo are generally given the first rank. Aesthetically considered, these baskets are probably the finest in the whole world. From this center, coiling extends to the interior highlands among the Shoshoni-speaking tribes, thence northward through the inland salmon area and the Déné portion of Canada. Even the Eskimo of Alaska use it, and also the natives of eastern Siberia. To the east, it stops in the plains, but extends southward among the Pima, Navajo, Apache, and other non-pueblo-dwelling tribes. Of the Pueblo peoples only one section of the Hopi uses the process and elsewhere there are but the crudest of attempts. In Mexico the technique disappears and does not come to notice again until we reach Patagonia. While in California a few of the coast tribes were coilers, the main distribution is inland, for beginning with the upper part of California, the entire coast belt including the Aleutian chain is exclusively devoted to woven basketry. In the eastern part of North America coiling is rare, a few of the northern Algonkin tribes following the lead of their Déné neighbors.
Notwithstanding the high development in the coil area, it is itself a part of the great western twined area. (Twine is a form of woven basketry.) The Pomo, for example, also make fine baskets of this weave, which can be said of most coil workers. In other words, coiled basketry seems to be a smaller area overlying a larger one of twined basketry. The Pueblo peoples do not make it, but do produce a kind of wickerwork like the tribes of northern Mexico, while their non-Pueblo neighbors, the Apache, Walapai, etc., make twined as well as coiled baskets.
Fig. 17. General Distribution of Types of Basketry
​Almost all of the twine and coil basket weavers are stone boilers, that is, they cook in baskets by dropping hot stones into their contents. Close fine twining and coiling is thus a necessity, for cooking baskets must be water-tight. In the pottery region of the Pueblos and southward, basketry is open and coarser. This undoubtedly accounts for the very high development of the art in California and northward.
Returning to the concentric distribution of the coil and twine technique, one must wonder which is the older. Some of the Déné coiled globular baskets are almost identical with a Chinese style, but this is more likely due to similar materials, for the intervening Siberian styles are more like those of the Eskimo. Thus coil seems to center in California and twine on the coast of the north, thus indicating their most probable centers of dispersion. We must, however, allow for more complex conditions, since archæological remains in certain cliff-houses indicate a high development of coil in prehistoric times. The studies of Kroeber and Barrett, as to the direction of the spiral coil in making the basket, suggest that central California and Arizona are of one type, while southern California (the Shoshoni-speaking tribes) and the interior as well as on northward, are of another. The meaning of this is not quite clear, but can be most readily explained as due to differentiation from two centers of influence. Hence, the chronological relation of coil and twine basketry remains a problem for the future.
The central portion of the bison area marks a hiatus between the basketry of the east and the west. Down the Mississippi and south from the Great Lakes, across the Antilles and on into the manioc or Amazon area of South America, basketry has one common characteristic in that it is made of flat or splint-like materials. Basketry of this sort is also found in the Andean region, but seems not to have been the prevailing style. The material is usually cane, which is probably responsible for the observed distribution. North of the Ohio River and in New England where suitable cane was not to be had, we find wood splints in use. These are made from the easily separated annual layers of certain trees. It seems a ​reasonable assumption that a historical connection exists between those two forms, and since basketry of cane is very widely distributed and the materials more readily prepared, we may suspect this to be the parent form.
In this connection birchbark vessels may be noted. They are an associate of the birchbark canoe from Nova Scotia to northern Russia. At no place in America, however, do they entirely displace woven or coil techniques.
Though closely analogous to splint basketry, matting does not always accompany it. Yet there are few peoples outside of the great hunting areas who do not use mats in some form. In the main we have two kinds: those woven of flat flexible materials, and those made by binding together long reeds or even twigs.
CLOTH
We can make one clear distinction between basketry and cloth, for the latter is formed by the weaving of spun or twisted materials. It is therefore made of string, or yarn. We have noted that some knowledge of thread-making is universal among mankind, but it is otherwise with the weaving of cloth. Such weaving in the New World may be comprehended under two designations: loom weaving and finger weaving, or upward weaving and downward weaving. In the loom, the weaver begins at the bottom and builds the fabric upward, driving the weft home with a downward stroke; in the other, the warp threads are hung loosely from a horizontal support and the fabric built from the top, the weft being pushed upward into place. In loom weaving, a sword or batten is used to beat down the weft and also as a shedding device, though an additional shedding device may be used. In downward weaving there are neither battens nor shedding devices, the fingers taking their place, though a bodkin or other pointed instrument may be used to force the weft into position.
Loom weaving begins with the Pueblo peoples and extends southward over the entire area of intense maize culture. Finger weaving is found in the salmon area, the Chilkat ​blanket being the most unique example, and covers the entire eastern maize area. The data for the Antilles are meager, but since the natives there made some use of cotton, it is safe
Fig. 18. Ojibway Weaving Frame, Showing the Suspended Warp and Method of Twining in the Weft. Weaving Proceeds Downward. See Fig. 70
Fig. 19. A Navajo Weaver A typical New World loom. The weaving proceeds upward Goddard. 1913. I
Fig. 20. Distribution of Weaving
​spindle-spinning complex, which we have closely associated with cotton. The chances are, therefore, that this whole loom complex spread as a unit.
The distribution of downward weaving will repay further study. Thus in the Aleutian Islands flexible baskets are woven suspended, and the Ojibway and other Central Algonkin tribes wove flexible wallets and soft bags in the same way. This, with the Chilkat blanket, gives us a broad sweep across the continent. In the main, too, this region is also the area of spinning without a spindle.
Turning aside for a moment, we find a peculiar type of sagebrush bark weaving in the plateaus among the Shoshoni and Salish in which parallel twisted strands are joined by widely separated rows of twined thread in pairs. Among the Kwakiutl and neighboring tribes, cedarbark is used in the same way. A similar technique for bags and mats is found around the Great Lakes and eastward. A few specimens from the Salish suggest that wild goat wool was sometimes treated in a similar fashion.
It appears, then, that north of the area of intense maize culture we have in general a basketry-like basis for weaving, and that when weaving is attempted with twisted elements, it is with suspended warp as for baskets and mats. Consistent with this is the rarity of the spindle.
Our problem is not simple, however, because among the modern Salish we find a frame for weaving coarse wool blankets. This may have been introduced by whites, but as the batten and shedding devices are absent and the weave is downward, we still have one of the weaving characteristics of the area. Very widely spread is the weaving of blankets from twisted strips of rabbit fur, a method which has a continuous distribution from Yucatan northward in Mexico and thence over the great plateau area of the United States to Canada where it traverses about the whole of the caribou area and reaches far down into the eastern maize area. This blanket is usually woven on a frame, but also without a batten or shedding device. The similarities between the Salish goat wool blanket and the rabbitskin blanket are so striking that ​one must suspect some reactionary influence. Returning to our subject, it is clear that the loom and upward weaving is a development of the South, presumably the area of intense maize culture, and that from there it was diffused around the north coast of South America and down the east side. Also the spindle method of spinning is definitely associated with the loom, though in one instance its distribution is wider.
Fig. 21. Cape of Sagebrush Bark, Showing a Simple Open Weave. Teil, 1900. I
Fig. 22. Peruvian Feather Poncho, Prehistoric
​of the continent, however, cannot boast anything that rises to the true cloth standard.
FEATHER-WORK
This seems a convenient place to note one of the most characteristic developments of New World technique, viz., feather-work. The center of the art seems to have been in Mexico, where highly decorative schemes were carried out by overlaying cloth with feathers. A few specimens have been preserved for us, but our real insight into this trait-complex is from historical accounts, particularly Sahagun. Cloaks and mantles for distinguished persons, headdresses for war leaders, and other badges of distinction were in feather mosaics. The less distinguished persons sometimes wore mantles of turkey feathers, an art extending to the Pueblo tribes of the United States, thence eastward through the Gulf States and northward as far as the Hudson River. On the Pacific Coast feather mosaics reach a high state of development in California basketry. Feather insignia and headdresses were conspicuous among some of the warlike tribes of the bison area.
Turning southward from Mexico, we find a fair development of feather mosaics in Peru; then out into the Amazon country where true mosaic work is rare we find one of the most characteristic traits to be brilliant feather-head decorations. Thus, taking Mexico as the center, we see a radiation of feather-work into both continents. We may also be reminded of the very striking parallel in Hawaii and the possibility of an historical connection between the two.
CLOTHING
Fig. 23. General Types of Costume and Their Distribution
​garments are practically those of the caribou area, but in modified form they extend down into the most nomadic part of the bison area. Also, in some of the inland districts of the salmon area variants appear. The whole Pacific Coast plain from the Tlingit of Alaska to Lower California was occupied by bare-footed, scantily clothed peoples, among whom the true coat and trousers were unknown. In the southern part of the eastern maize area, the costume consisted of little more than a breech or loin cloth. When needed, a robe or kind of loosely fitted cape was put on. Notwithstanding its ill adaptation to winter climate, this form of costume extended into New England, where, while leggings and moccasins protected the feet, the trunk was covered by a robe so arranged as to leave one arm free. This was covered by a muff-like sleeve. In the bison area, as far north as Dakota, where the winters are severe, the bison robe was the only upper garment. It is quite clear, therefore, that tailored skin clothing is an associate of the caribou or reindeer area, and that the only definite intrusion it makes is in the western part of the bison area and the contiguous parts of the salmon area.
In the great weaving area of Mexico and the Andes, clothing is of woven cloth. The peculiarity of such clothing is that it was never cut and fitted, but each garment was worn in the form in which it came from the loom. Thus a poncho, or shirt, is rectangular, with one slit for the neck and two for the arms. In some cases very short sleeves were added, formed by folding a rectangular piece of cloth and sewing. Thus, in the textile area we find the tailor's art at its lowest. That this is not entirely a matter of environment is suggested by the weakness of tailoring among the skin-wearing tribes of Patagonia, who do little more than muffle themselves in a robe. Originally this robe was worn over one shoulder like the Algonkins of the Atlantic plain.
Fig. 24. Forms of Footwear
​proceed southward into Africa and Australia we meet with peoples who wear skins, but who do not cut them into garments. While there is a climatic factor here, there are still other influences to be considered. Europeans and their New World offspring are the only peoples except the Chinese who specialize in the cutting and fitting of cloth. History shows that tailored garments came into Europe relatively late, whereas in China they seem to be very ancient. Now the Chinese and Europeans were in contact with the reindeer hunters of the North and when we have such continuity for the distribution of a trait we usually consider it a case of diffusion from one center. The continuity of the trait in Siberia and America is also clear. We see, then, that the whole tailoring art of the world has a continuous geographical distribution and centers around skin garments rather than those of cloth.
It has been noted that certain peculiar styles of garment in the bison area were due to the natural form of the skins. This seems to be the natural consequence with a people who, lacking tailoring traditions, worked out a more complete costume of skins. We have noted that in the case of textiles the rectangular form necessitated by the technique of loom weaving, together with the lack of the tailoring idea, gave a characteristic form to the woven garments. In the bison area we find a skin poncho which follows so closely the main form of the textile poncho to the south that it is difficult to deny a historical relation, though, as stated above, the similarity is disguised by the peculiar contour of the edges of the skin.
There are many other interesting problems in costume, but we have no space for their discussion. For example, a study of footgear is highly suggestive. Thus we find in both the Old and New World that the sandal is a correlative of textile clothing. In the bison area, moccasins have hard soles in contrast to those of the forest regions, which, considering the geographical relations, suggests the intrusion of the sandal idea, though denied by Hatt. Going barefoot is peculiarly prevalent on the west coast of the salmon area and is the rule in the southern half of the eastern maize area and thence ​through the Antilles and down the eastern side of the Andes. In Patagonia a skin shoe again appears, but the Fuegians tend to go barefoot.
* ↑ Adair, 1775. I.
* ↑ Crawford, 1915. I.
* ↑ Parker, cited by Wissler, 1915. II.
* ↑ Nelson, E. W., 1899. I.
* ↑ Roth, 1910. I.
* ↑ Kissell, 1916. II.
* ↑ Rau, 1884. I.
* ↑ Stefánsson, 1914. I.
* ↑ Moore, 1916. I.
* ↑ Mason, 1904. I.
* ↑ Kissell, 1916. I.
* ↑ Kroeber, 1908. I.
* ↑ Barrett, 1908. I.
* ↑ Boas in Teit, 1909. I.
* ↑ Emmons, 1907. I.
* ↑ Im Thurn, 1883. I.
* ↑ Teit, 1900. I.
* ↑ Teit, 1900. I.
* ↑ Crawford, 1915. I; 1916. I.
* ↑ Du Pratz, 1758. I; Lewis, T. H., (Editor), 1907. I; Hunter, 1823. I; Adair, 1775. I; Kalm, 1772. I.
* ↑ Bushnell, 1909. I.
* ↑ Seler, 1904. I.
* ↑ Mead, 1907. I.
* ↑ Willoughby, 1905. I.
* ↑ Hatt, 1916. I.
* ↑ Wissler, 1915. II.
* ↑ Hatt, 1916. I.