THE STORY OF PUEBLO WEAVING
by
Frederic H. Douglas
Curator of Indian Art Denver Art Museum

Most visitors to the Southwest know about, or at least have heard about Navaho rugs and weaving. That any other tribes wove is decidedly news, and the fact that other tribes were weaving hundreds of years before the Navahos even heard of rug-making is a real shock. Yet this is actually the case. The Pueblo tribes and their immediate predecessors, the Basket Makers, were past masters of the textile art long before the Navaho and their Apache cousins ever reached their present homes. The story of this ancient and still existing craft is the purpose of this article. It will tell of the development of weaving, describe the kinds of things woven and discuss some of the puzzles and difficulties of the problem.

Those who come to Mesa Verde hear so much about the Basket Makers that it seems unnecessary to do more than state that they were the fore-runners of the Pueblo tribes in the Southwest, and that the name applied to them is based on their great skill in basket-making and weaving. But a good idea of their weaving helps create a background for the textile art of the Pueblos.

The name "Basket Maker" is somewhat misleading as far as the story of weaving is concerned. Most people think of a basket as a stiff and solid object which has little visible connection with woven cloth. The Basket Makers did make such stiff baskets, but they did not constitute all of their output. In addition to the baskets they made soft bags of fine and intricate weave, flexible fibre sandals of great complexity, and soft but firm bands of braided wild animal wool. These are the things which connect this ancient race with our story.

Technically the processes used in making the bags, bands and sandals are simpler than those used in true weaving. In the latter process the warp or foundation threads are tightly fixed in a rigid frame, while the waft or filling threads are manipulated in groups with the aid of heddle rods. In Basket Maker weaving the warps are merely suspended by one end from a single point. The wefts are worked across the warps one at a time by a weaving process called twining. Two wafts are twisted together around the warps one at a time. Of this simple process the Basket Makers worked out many elaborate variations, as many as nine having been found in a single sandal. Braiding also reached heights unrealized by the average person. We usually think of braiding in connection with children's hair, or with leather watch-fobs, in which only a few strands are used, but the Basket Makers used several dozen strands to make their animal wool belts.

Though it is interesting to note something about the technics used before Pueblo times our chief interest in this article lies in the designs used in these twined bags and sandals. When the Pueblos began to weave they did not take over Basket Maker technics, but their designs were adopted and became one of the great foundations of the design style used by the Pueblos in weaving and even more so on painted pottery. Basket Maker textile design is of two main types. The first, which does not concern us further, used masses of triangles very often arranged in zigzags. Designs of this type appear on the large, soft twined bags mentioned above. The other type, which was taken up and greatly developed by the Pueblos, is usually made up of many small right-angled figures interlocking with each other. This kind of design is best illustrated by the elaborate type of sandal. It also appears on headbands used in carrying burdens. The patterns are not always rectangular, for many are made up of sharply zigzagging lines.

Design on Basket Maker Woman's Apron

Such was the background for Pueblo weaving. Just when and how it began is still unknown. The Pueblo groups seem to have appeared in the Southwest by at least 500 A.D. When they did begin to weave they used and produced technics, materials and kinds of articles unknown to the Basket Makers. The chief material for weaving became cotton, the true loom with tight warp and heddle raised wefts succeeded the simple Basket Maker technic, and blankets and other articles of clothing replaced bags, sandals and burden straps.

The seemingly rather sudden appearance in the Southwest of all these new things is usually explained by saying that they were introduced from the higher native civilizations in Mexico. How true this is is difficult to say. From early in the Christian era there has been a belt of cloth-making peoples stretching from Peru and Bolivia in the south to Arizona in the north. Methods and objects produced throughout this area have many fundamental likenesses, though the details differ very widely. There are several ways to explain this state of affairs. By one theory weaving on the true loom was invented in our Southwest and spread southward. The art matured as it moved from tribe to tribe, and the increasingly rich development of nature in the tropics helped elaborate the textile art. Finally it reached Peru, where American Indian weaving reached its most magnificent heights. The basis for this theory is the fact that every step in the development of weaving from coarse twisted yucca sandals to the delicate painted or drawnwork mantles of the 15th century is found in our Southwest; while in Peru there are only the most elaborate technics known, with nothing to show in the way of developmental steps.

The other theory is that weaving was invented in Peru and spread gradually north, steadily losing in technic and finish as it moved away from the parent center. By the time this wave reached northern Arizona it had lost most of its force, so that nothing was left but the relatively simple textiles of the Pueblos, which are elementary when compared to Peruvian work. The absence of beginnings of weaving in Peru is presumable accounted for by the fact that they have not been found. This is the weak spot of the theory. A third group feels that our Pueblo and Basket Maker weaving had nothing to do with that of races to the south of them. This group feels that the loom could have been invented by several different people in various localities.

The solution of this problem lies in more and better archeology in many places. To discuss it further in an article of this type would be to waste both time and effort for writer and reader. Enough has been said to show that Pueblo weaving, about which so little is known, is part of a large problem which needs solving. A textile expert who has the time and leisure to really tackle the job is badly needed. Perhaps some chance visitor to Mesa Verde will be the man.

We can now turn to more fact and less mystery, though there is still plenty of the latter as will presently be seen. From the beginning of cotton weaving, 700 A.D., until the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century what was done by Pueblo weavers is quite well known. From many excavated ruins scattered widely over Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada have come pieces of cotton cloth. A few are in practically perfect condition; others are sufficiently whole to make their reconstruction easy; and the rest are mere tattered fragments, though some of these small bits show fancy technics and hence are of more interest than large plain pieces. The large proportion of pieces now existing are made in a plain weave about like that in a cement sack. Others show several kinds of diamond and zigzag weaves. There are enough fragments of openwork to indicate that this technic was well established. In these pieces wefts are wrapped around several warps, leaving regularly spaced openings in the cloth.

There are three kinds of decoration by means of color. In one, previously dyed threads of several colors; black, a rich red-brown, a blue, and several yellows and browns were woven into elaborate interlocking hook patterns of the old Basket Maker type described earlier in this article. Quite a number of pieces show only colored stripes, the color usually being red-brown. Another use of color involved painting the cloth after it was woven. There are two famous specimens of this work; a blanket painted with an elaborate interlocking design, now in Tucson, and a poncho-shirt with checkerboards and circles, in Cambridge, Mass. The third method is tie-dying. Small areas are tied into tight little bunches with string. The cloth is then dyed. The little bundles are tied too tightly to admit the dye, so that when they are untied light spots are left. We know from early Spanish sources that painting and dyeing were being used in the 16th century. The loom was like that of the Navaho and Pueblo of today.

The highest development of this prehistoric Pueblo weaving seems to have been reached in the 15th century in a large area of which Gallup, New Mexico is roughly the center.

The coming of the Spanish in 1540 brought to an end a period of knowledge about Pueblo weaving. In their journals and letters they mention much Pueblo weaving, but give too few details to make accurate descriptions possible. One of the adjectives applied by them to this weaving will be discussed later. From the end of the 15th century until the middle of the 19th we have no actual examples of Pueblo weaving. What went on in this very long period is veiled in the deepest mystery. Scattered through these three hundred years are a very few references to Pueblo cloth, but not one actual specimen seems to be in existence. That weaving went on during this time we know from the notes in literature. The explorers write of the cloth they found in use, and government records at later periods speak of the workshops in which the Indians were forced to weave endless yards of cloth for their masters. When the Americans began to enter the country about 1830 a few notes were made about Pueblo weaving, but, with one exception, they only refer to cloth without giving recognizable details. The one exception seems to refer to an embroidered shawl of a type to be mentioned later.

In 1879 the Smithsonian Institution sent James Stevenson into the Southwest to make museum collections among the Pueblos. The relatively few textiles which he obtained are the oldest historic specimens which can be definitely dated. In every detail they exactly resemble pieces of the same types which are being made today. But when these new technics were introduced is part of the mystery, hidden in the years between about 1500 and 1879. The two chief innovations are embroidery and brocading. Embroidery is the application to cloth of designs executed with a needle; in brocading the patterns are woven into the cloth on the loom, an extra weft being used for the purpose.

In a previous paragraph reference was made to one of the adjectives applied by the Spanish to Pueblo weaving; this word is "bordada". It now means "embroidered" in Spanish, but may have meant something else four hundred years ago. This question of meaning is important, for not one piece of prehistoric embroidered fabric has been found. Yet one of the earliest Spaniards referred to Pueblo cloth with a word which seems to mean "embroidered". A satisfactory answer to this problem would be much appreciated by students.

The present tendency of people working today in the field of Pueblo textiles is to think that embroidery was learned from the Spanish. The same is true of brocade, of which prehistoric examples do not seem to exist. There are just enough details in modern Pueblo embroidery patterns to suggest some Spanish influence in design. A technical connection has not yet been established, though the matter is now being carefully investigated.

Hopi Shawl

Since what might be called the rediscovery of Pueblo weaving in 1879 textiles from this race have been chiefly produced among the western towns. The Hopi are, and for long have been, the chief producers among the Pueblos, with Zuni going fairly strong in second place and Acoma and Laguna far to the rear. Scanty investigations show that some weaving was done in the Rio Grande pueblos until about the end of the 19th century. Today only the making of the ordinary wide red wool belt keeps up the tradition of weaving in these towns, from Isleta north to San Juan. Today there are several hundred men. among the Hopi who weave or know how to do so. There are also a number of men embroiderers who are kept busy supplying shawls and kilts for sale to all the other Pueblos. At Zuni there are at least several dozen women producing black wool dresses, and cotton ceremonial articles. A few old men still carry on the embroiderers art. In the Acoma tribe there are about a half dozen very old men weavers. Two of them are still weaving coarse wool blankets. There are no old embroiderers, though some young people have been inspired by government schools to revive the typical Acoma embroidery. This group also makes wool belts. There seems to be only one Laguna weaver living, a very old, blind man who can work no more. At Isleta the last blanket weaver died some years ago. A report that there were a few women blanket weavers could not be verified on a recent short visit.

Some time after the introduction of sheep by the Spanish, most probably in the early 17th century, the Pueblo weavers began to work in wool as well as cotton. This two-fold activity has been carried on until the present. Wool fabrics include blankets; usually with narrow stripe designs, rectangles of black cloth for women's dresses blue or black shirts, breech-cloths and kilts for men, white sashes brocaded with many colors, and wide wool belts, red with colored bands and worn by women. At Acoma and Laguna women's wool dresses were formerly brilliantly embroidered.

Knitting with wool produces close fitting leggings. From cotton are made bridal outfits, consisting of large and small robes, shawl with red and blue edges; and braided sash; and men's kilts worn by dancers. Embroidery with wool is applied to these kilts and to the small wedding robes. The red and blue edges of the shawl mentioned above are of wool.

There are many varieties of these basic types. To describe them all in detail would alone make a long paper and a discussion of the technics used in making them, and of their designs would make another. As this article is a telling of the history of Pueblo weaving rather than a technical description it seems best to reserve other points for a further article.