AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW of NATIVE AMERICAN TEXTILES

Traditions of textile manufacture and design have shown remarkable continuity and resilience throughout the Southwest They are expressions of locally developed weaving traditions that have been shared and borrowed from outside contacts, often through trade or domination, and subsequently adapted to become a unique cultural expressions. This richness is strikingly seen in prehistoric textiles that exhibit a broad range of styles, techniques and materials. This book does not explore prehistoric textiles; that subject has been well covered in works by Lynn S. Teague, PhD and Laurie Webster, PhD, cited in the Bibliography.

Textiles were/are manufactured using several techniques, the earliest being finger weaving and belt looms, simple methods using the fingers or a simple loom attached to a strap around the weavers back. Small horizontal looms are also known prehistorically; however their use did not continue amongst the Pueblos into historic times.

Most importantly, techniques of manufacture demonstrate an inventiveness unique to the region. This is seen most dramatically in the invention of the vertical loom in the Four Corners region where the States of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah meet) sometime before 1000 BC. This loom was adopted some hundreds of years later by the Dinè for their iconic blankets and rugs.

Large horizonal frame looms are a European invention brought into the Southwest by the Spanish. These allow the creation of fabrics of considerable length to be made quickly and in quantity. There use by the Pueblo peoples has generally been limited to commercial operations first established by the Spanish, and later by Anglos, e.g. the Tewa Weavers shop in Albuquerque, during the latter half of the 20th Century.

An important development for producing designs was the “Pueblo stitch” or “Pueblo backstitch”. Because this is solely related to imagery and symbolism, it is not pursued in this book. However as a textile technique unique to the region, we would be remiss in not mentioning it. The Pueblo stitch is an embroidery technique applied to a finished fabric, rather than a brocade technique in which the design is woven into the fabric. The two techniques can be very difficult to distinguish, unless a fairly large example survives. In any case, both the Pueblo stitch and brocades are currently being produced and used. When the Pueblo stitch comes to prominence in Pueblo textile decoration is not clear. But what is clear is that the Pueblo stitch and brocade techniques are both uniquely Pueblo and more than likely were invented in prehistoric times. There is nothing like either of these techniques in other parts of the Americas or in Europe.

The first Spaniards to enter the Southwest were impressed by the beauty and quality of Pueblo garments. The following is a translation Hernan Gallegos's description of his visit to a southern Tiwa town (probably in the vicinity of modern Socorro, New Mexico) in the 1580s:

Some (men) adorn themselves with pieces of colored cotton cloth three-fourths of a vara (a vara is about a yard) in length and two-thirds in width, with which they cover their privy parts Over this they wear, fastened at the shoulders, a blanket of the same material, decorated with many figures and colors, which reaches to their knees, like the clothes of the Mexicans. Some, in fact, most, wear cotton shirts, hand-painted and embroidered, that are very pleasing . . . Below the waist the women wear cotton skirts, colored and embroidered; and above, a blanket of the same material, figured and adored like those used by the men. They adjust it after the fashion of Jewish women and gird it with embroidered cotton sashes adorned with tassels. (Hammond and Rey 1966:70).

The Hopi villages and the Pueblo towns along the Rio Grande were major centers of cotton production. Men were the principal weavers. According to the initial Spanish accounts, most spinning and weaving took place in the kivas (i.e. ceremonial chambers, that also functioned as a sort of men’s club houses) during the winter months when men were free from agricultural responsibilities. This pattern was undoubtedly true in prehistoric times, as evidence of loom weaving has been found in excavated kivas.

Tribute textiles produced at the missions and workshops in New Mexico were often made by men, in keeping with traditional practices. However, women also wove fabric in textile shops, as well as engaged in spinning and knitting. This contrasts with the missions of Texas and California where women worked on treadle-looms.

Because of their remoteness the Hopi villages remained on the perimeter of Spanish incursion and were not dominated by the Spaniards following the reconquest in 1692 after the Pueblo Revolt, nor were they subject to the imposition of taxation/tithes/tribute by the Spanish Crown which included vast quantities of plain weave wool fabric to which the Pueblos of the Rio Grande region were subject. In addition, refugees from several Rio Grande Pueblos remained at Hopi, most notably by the Tewa people living at the First Mesa Village of Hano, resulting in the maintenance of strong connections between the Rio Grande Pueblos and Hopi.