USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 57
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
For more than a century the Navajos have been disposing of their blankets to Mexicans and other Indian tribes. Many rare specimens may be obtained from the rural homes of the native New Mexicans and the community houses of the pueblos, and also from the tepees of the Utes and
400
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
Apaches. With rare exceptions the blankets now obtainable direct from the Navajos are of modern weave.
BASKETS.
New Mexico is celebrated for the variety and beauty of its Indian baskets. Until recent years comparatively little has been known regarding the history of basketry in this territory. The most authoritative publica- tions dealing with this interesting feature of aboriginal and modern life in the southwest are the annual reports of the Board of Regents of the Smith- sonian Institution and of the United States National Museum for the year ending June 30, 1902, containing an elaborate report of investigations into aboriginal American basketry by Prof. Otis Tufton Mason, Curator of the Division of Ethnology. It is from these invaluable and fascinating contri- butions to the ethnological literature of America that the following abstract has been drawn :
Basketry, says Prof. Mason, is the mother of all loom work and bead work. In form it varies through the following classes of objects :
I .- Flat mats or wallets, generally flexible.
2 .- Plaques or food-plates, which are slightly concave.
3 .- Bowls for mush and other foods and for ceremonial purposes, hemispherical in general outline.
4 .- Pots for cooking, with cylindrical sides and rounded or flat bot- toms. These vary into cones, truncated cones and trough-shaped baskets.
5 .- Jars and fanciful shapes, in which the mouth is constricted, and now and then supplied with a cover. They are spindle-shaped, pyriform, napiform, and, indeed, imitate fruits known to the natives. The various kinds of woven basketry are divided by Prof. Mason as follows :
A .- Checkerwork: The warp and the weft having the same width, thickness and pliability.
B .- Diagonal or twilled basketry: Two or more weft strands over two or more warp strands.
C .- Wickerwork: Inflexible warp; slender, flexible weft.
D .- Wrapped weft, or single weft wrapped: The weft strand is wrapped, or makes a bight about the warp at each decussation, as in the Mohave Kiho.
E .- Twined or wattled basketry: Weft of two or more elements.
With a few exceptions the makers of baskets are women. But for ceremonial purposes Indian priests or medicine men are frequently the makers of their own basket drums, etc. It is a matter of profound regret that already over much of the United States the art of basketry has degen- erated, or at least has been modified. In the manufacture of their baskets the Indians have ransacked the mineral, animal and vegetable kingdoms. But the chief dependence of the makers is upon the vegetable kingdom. Nearly all parts of the plants have been used-roots, stems, bark, leaves, fruits, seeds and gums. The small, straight, peeled branches of the amelan- chier palmeri, or sarviceberry, are used by the Apaches of the White Moun- tain Indian reservation to form the uprights in their large carrying baskets. They also use the stems of the Juncus balticus, or common rush, or wire grass, for the manufacture of small children's baskets; the Martynialonisi- ana, or devil horns, more commonly known as the unicorn plant, which,
401
INDIAN TRIBES
when moistened and split, are used extensively in the black patterns; the pinus edulis, or Arizona nut pine, commonly known as piñon, from which they procure pitch for their water baskets; the rhus trilobata, or three-leaf sumac, using the peeled branches for warp and the split branches for weft and sewing material; and the salix lasiandra, or willow, which is the most commonly employed. The Mescalero Apaches of southern New Mexico use the split leaves of the yucca baccata, or banana yucca, for the main portion of their baskets and its roots for the red patterns. They also use in the same way the leaves and roots of the yucca macrocarpa, which grows at lower elevations. The Zuñi Indians employ the willow. The Navajos use the three-leaf sumac most commonly.
After the harvesting of the materials, they are prepared by splitting and separating the desirable from the undesirable portions; removing the bark, taking the soft and spongy matter from the fibrous portion; making ribbon-like splints of uniform width and thickness; shredding, as in cedar bark; twisting, twining and braiding, when such work enters into the make-up of the basket ; and gauging and coloring. The apparatus for this intermediate work must have been very simple in aboriginal times, a stone knife and shell for scraping supplementing the work of the fingers and the teeth. Nature furnished opportunities for diversity of color in the sub- stances themselves. The Indian also knew how to change or modify the natural color of different materials by burying them in mud. The juices of the plants and the mineral substances in the mud combined to produce darker shades of the same color, or an entirely different one. The savage woman also knew that certain plants were useful as dyes. The basket-makers' awl of bone, the old aboriginal implement, may still be seen at work ; but the knife with which prehistoric woman cut her basket material has utterly disappeared from use.
The work mostly in vogue among the Mescalero Apaches is based upon three rods, laid one upon another in a vertical row, the stitches simply inter- locking so that the greatest economy of work is effected. It is not known that any other tribe in America practices this peculiar arangement of the foundation rods. This tribe also uses the two-rod foundation, but instead of passing the stitch around the upper rod of the coil below, they simply interlock the stitches so that neither one of the two rods is inclosed twice. This Apache ware is sewed with yucca fibre and the brown root of the same plant, producing a brilliant effect, and the result of the special technic is a flat surface like that of pottery. The United States National Museum possesses a single piece of precisely the same technic from the kindred of the Apache on the lower Yukon.
In the rod and welt foundation the single rod foundation is overlaid by a splint or strip of tough fibre, the stitches interlocking. This style of coil work is seen on old Zuñi basket jars.
One of the best specimens of ancient coiled baskets was found in the pueblo of Zia, on the Rio Grande. In addition to the structure, which con- sists of two rods and a splint above, sewed with willow splints, the stitches interlock and catch in the welt below, the ornamentation is a stepped design, suggestive of pueblo architecture on the upper figure and spirals made up of colored rectangulars on the lower figure. The modern Indians of this pueblo do not make basketry of this character, however, and it is reason-
Vol. I. 26
402
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
able to think that in the olden times those specimens came into the posses- sion of these people by traffic from Shoshonean tribes near by.
Basketry is rendered water-tight by closeness of texture and by daub- ing with pitch or asphaltum, and there is no reason for believing that the ancient ware differed from the modern. The White Mountain Apaches make water jars in diagonal twined weaving, covered with pitch, with two or three lugs of wood attached to the sides.
The border of a basket is frequently of quite another class of weave, as compared with the body of the basket. This grows out of the exigency of the case. A specimen made recently by a Zuñi woman is of stripped leaves of yucca, from which coarse mats, basket bowls and trays are made. The mat is woven square and a hoop of wood is provided for the border. The mat is forced down into it and the ends of the warp and weft cut off about an inch above the hoop. They are then bent down on the outside in groups of fours and held in place with one row of twined weaving. In the simplest forms of Zuni wicker work the ends of the warp are all cut off in uniform lengths and each bent down by the side of the next warp, or behind one warp and down beside the second warp; or is woven behind and in front of the other warp stems with greater or less intricacy, forming a rope pattern on the outside.
In a specimen obtained from the Zia pueblo a hoop is used for the foundation of the border, which consists of an ordinary "figure-of-eight" wrapping, as in doing up a kite string. By the manipulation of a single pliable splint, effects are produced on the border which resemble three-ply or four-ply braid.
Ornamentation in and on basketry is to be studied with three teachers or guides-the technician, the artist and the folklorist. In producing her effects the basket-maker must be freely equipped for her work before the first stitch or check is attempted. There is no chance to go back and remedy defects. As on pueblo pottery,, so on basketry ; some patterns are merely crude likenesses of things, and that is all. A step in advance of this is the portraiture of some particular and sacred natural feature. Pictography is one grade higher, and, beginning with attempts at figuring animals and plants entire, runs the whole gamut of transformation, ending with con- ventional inetonymies, synecdoches and geometric patterns of the classic type.
Form in basketry is decided at the outset, not by the desire to create something artistic, but to produce a useful receptacle. There is scarcely a basket so rude, however, that a sense of symmetry and other artistic quali- ties did not enter into its composition. The cube, the cone, the cylinder, the sphere, are the bases of all simple and complicated varieties. In softer material basketry approaches matting. The products are then flat or pliable, although the process of manufacture is the same. While all Indians are imitators to a certain degree, it is an entire misconception of the underlying plan to suppose that the skillful weaver is a slave to natural patterns. As a matter of fact, she appears to be less subservient to such things than arti- sans of a much higher grade. Use co-operates with beauty in deepening the basket into a shallow plate, one of the most attractive specimens of which is to be found in the so-called Navajo ceremonial baskets. These beautiful creations have attracted much attention through their association
403
INDIAN TRIBES
with Navajo ceremonies. They are called ghost drums, wedding baskets and various other names, all associated with the Navajo religion.
Deepening the plate or dish gives the bowl an unlimited number of forms and emancipates the basket maker. All through the southwestern United States the olla is the prevailing form. It is a segment cut from a sphere, marvelous in symmetry when the production of a master hand. Departing from this simple outline, varieties are produced by flattening the bottom and straightening the body until the truncated cone and regular cylinder are reached. The quality of the material used may have a little to do with the general outline, but it is charming to see how easily the savage woman overcomes the obstinacy of nature and persuades reluctant wood to do the work of grass and soft fibres.
Ornamentation in the form of the basket as a whole has kept pace with the multiplication of uses. The first contact of the Indians with the whites created new desires in their minds. Furthermore, it was not long before they discovered their best interests to lie in the direction of service to their conquerors. The supply of new wants and responses to the de- mands just mentioned would necessarily break in upon the ancient regime. The farthest departure from old-fashioned types is exhibited in the work of the Apaches, who attempt all sorts of animal forms in coiled work, and the Pima tribes, who lose themselves in labyrinths and frets.
The Navajo Indians employ native dyes of yellow, reddish and black. The black dye is made from the twigs and leaves of the aromatic sumac, which they boil five or six hours. Ocher is reduced to a fine powder and slowly roasted over a fire until it assumes a light brown color. It is then combined with an equal quantity of piñon gum, and again the mixture is placed upon the fire and stirred. The gum melts and the mass assumes a mushv consistency. As the roasting progresses the mass is reduced to a fine black powder. When it has cooled it is thrown into the decoction of sumac, with which it forms a rich blue-black fluid. This is essentially an ink, the tannic acid of the sumac combining with the iron of the ferric oxide in the roasted ocher. The whole is enriched by the carbon of the calcined gum. Reddish dye is made from the bark of the alnus tenuifolia and the bark and root of cercocarpus parvifolius, the mordant being fine juniper ashes. These dyes are now applied by the Navajo. For yellow the flowering tops of chrysothamnus graveolens are boiled about six hours, until a decoction of deep yellow is produced. The dyer then heats over the fire some native alum until it is reduced to a pasty consistency. This she adds to the decoction and then puts the whole in the dye to boil. The tint produced is nearly lemon yellow.
All the New Mexico tribes and families which produce baskets adorn their output with some kind of designs. Some of these have an interesting symbolical significance. In New Mexico and Arizona the legend is found in two forms, side by side. Similar types of symbolism, occasioned by the climate, the physical features and productions of the arid region will be found at Zuñi and among the pueblos of the Rio Grande.
Before the coming of Europeans, basketry supplied nearly every do- mestic necessity of the Indians, from an infant's cradle to the richly dec- orated funerary jars burned with the dead. The wealth of a family was counted in the number and beauty of its baskets, and the highest virtue. of woman was her ability to produce them. The basket performed many func-
404
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
tions. Carrying in baskets was done by the aboriginal Americans on the head; on the back with head band or breast strap, and in the hands. About the home the basket was scarcely ever absent. In a hemisphere almost de- void of pack animals, where woman was the ubiquitous beast of burden, is it any wonder that she invented the most economical of devices for hold- ing and transporting? Basketry is still employed, more or less extensively, in dress and adornment of the person, especially in the form of sandals and headgear. But the art has been most useful as the patron of fine art and culture. But among the Navajos the art is little cultivated today, because it was neglected through the development of blanket weaving. The material is the aromatic sumac. The work is done in coiled weaving. The foundation is in roots of the same material. In starting the basket the butt of the rod is placed in the centre, the tip toward the periphery all the way to the end of the work. Around the middle is a band in red, and branching from this band outward and inward triangles in black. The band is not continuous, but at one point is intersected by a narrow line of a colored wood. At first this seemed to be an imitation of the pueblo "line of life" on pottery, but the Navajo line is put there to assist in the orientation of the basket in the medicine lodge when the light is dim. In playing their game, the butts and tips of the Navajo give preference to the butt end of the gambling stick, associating the idea with that of the position of the warp in the coiled basket. When the basket is finished, the butt of the first twig and the tip of the last twig in the outer edge must be on a line with this radial opening. When the basket is used in ceremony this line must lie east and west. The stick for this drum is made from the leaves of the yucca, bent together, wrapped and sewed. The dull, ghostly sound accords well with the other portions of their ceremonies.
The cooking basket was necessarily water-tight, and was made by the coiled method. The broth or stew is placed in the basket and heated stones dropped into it, the operation being repeated until the food has been suffi- ciently cooked. Baskets of various forms are used elsewhere in the culinary department, as pans and pots and kettles of wood and copper and iron are used by civilized peoples.
House and furniture were, here and there, constructed of basket work, so the basket-maker became architect and cabinet-maker. It is also inti- mately associated with the end of Indian life. Not only were fabrics woven in basketry technic wrapped about the dead and used to protect the body, but on the sentimental side examples of the finest workmanship were either deposited or burned with their makers.
Basketry also figured largely in the protection of pottery intended for daily use. There are innumerable examples of basketry and other textile markings on prehistoric earthenware found in many places throughout New Mexico.
Among the pueblo Indians of New Mexico, seeking, carrying and stor- ing water was one of the chief industries, and most of the religious cere- monies and prayers were with reference to rain. The larger carrying vessel among the pueblos was of pottery, but among the nomadic tribes, such as the Utes, Apaches and Navajos, these vessels were of water-tight basketry made with round or conical bottom, so that in settling on a level the centre of gravity would bring the vessel into an upright position and thereby keep the water from spilling.
405
INDIAN TRIBES
Two ancient coiled baskets found at the pueblo of Zia, in the Jemez river, have the following peculiar characteristics: The foundation is of splints, the sewing is done with willow or rhux, and the stitches are just barely carried around a small portion of the foundation underneath where they are interlocked. The ornamentation (an ascending spiral) is, in one case, a rhombic figure, and in the other is built up of little rectangles, formed by counting stitches. The margins of these baskets appear to be in a three- strand plait ; but they are really done in a single splint which passes back- ward over the foundation, then under and forward, inclosing the rod under- neath, formning a figure of eight. The multiplication of this produces on the surface the braided appearance.
Although there may be seen at the pueblo of Zuñi all sorts of baskets, the most of them include pitched bottles of water, coiled and whipped trays, Hopi-coiled and wicker-basket trays, but it is not to be understood that they were necessarily made there. The only work made by the Zuñi now- adays is their small, rough peach baskets, of twigs and wicker-work, hardly worthy of notice except for their ugliness and simplicity. The Zuñi pueblos lie in the very heart of the desert region, and are surrounded by numerous basket-making tribes. There is no cause for surprise, therefore, in finding fine specimens of the art in their villages, for trading is a passion with them, and through their agricultural products and their refined loom work they are able to gratify this taste for old basketry among the surrounding tribes.
The Fraser river tribes in British Columbia obtained an economical result of widening coils by the introduction of narrow strips of wood in- stead of the roots or bundles of grass for the foundation. The Mescalero Apaches of New Mexico have also discovered that using two or more rods, one lying on the top of the other, would give the same result. The stitches in yucca, also, instead of passing underneath another rod in the coil below, are simply interlocked with the stitches underneath. The ornamentation is produced by different colors of the same substance.
C. M. O'Leary of Los Angeles, California, asserts that the Navajos do not make baskets, but that they use a ceremonial basket that is made by the Apaches and comes from Arizona. Other observers attribute the cu- rious product commonly known as the "Navajo wedding-basket" to the Ute. Nevertheless, old Navajo women still understand the art, though the energies of this tribe in recent years have been devoted to the weaving of blankets. Baskets attributed to the Navajos are extremely uniform in every respect. On the authority of Dr. Washington Matthews, who is recognized as one of the highest living authorities on the Navajo and his work, a tradi- tion of the race is that in ancient days a Navajo woman invented the pretty border seen on these baskets. She was seated under a juniper tree finishing her work in the old, plain way, when the god, Hastseyath, threw a small spray of juniper into her basket. She imitated the fold of the leaves on the border and the invention was complete.
The decoration of the Navajo baskets is, in designs, taking the form of bands for their sacred drums, and of crosses for their sacred meal bas- kets. The one characteristic to which attention is always directed in this ware is the break in the band. Previous mention has been made of the use to which this opening is put at certain times. Another interpretation of this, which does not seem to have been proven true, is that this break in
406
HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
the ornamentation has something to do with the passing backward and forward of the spirit of the basket, as in certain pueblo pottery decoration.
Whenever civilization has come in contact with lower races, it has found the woman enjoying the most friendly acquaintance with textile plants and skillful in weaving their roots, stems and leaves into basketry, matting and other similar products without machinery. The result of ar- chaeological research in America has proven that basketry was well nigh universal throughout the western hemisphere before the landing of Colum- bus, while at least one-half of the area was devoid of pottery. Ancient ceme- teries, mounds, caves and ruins- gave evidence of the high antiquity of the art on both continents. Research demonstrates that no changes have taken place in this respect either in the variety of the technical processes or the fineness of the workmanship. There is an unbroken genealogy of basket- making running back to the most ancient times.
THE SWASTIKA.
The Swastika, the earliest known symbol of any character, has been made by Indian tribes in America for centuries. Its history and its sig- nificance form one of the most interesting features of aboriginal life in New Mexico. The simple cross, made with two sticks or marks, belongs to prehistoric times in both the Old World and the New. Its first appear- ance among men is lost in antiquity. The meaning given to the earliest cross is equally unknown. But in early times a differentiation arose among nations, by which certain forms of the cross have been known under certain names and with specific significations. Some of these, such as the Maltese cross, the Latin cross, the Greek cross and the St. Andrew's cross, are his- toric and can be easily identified. But of the many forms of the cross, the Swastika is the most ancient. "Despite the theories and speculations of students, its origin is unknown," writes the most eminent of authorities .* "It began before history, and is properly classed as prehistoric. It is de- scrihed as follows: The bars of the normal Swastika are straight, of equal thickness throughout, and cross each other at right angles, making four arms of equal size, length and style. Their peculiarity is that all the ends are bent at right angles and in the same direction, right or left. Prof. Max Muller makes the symbol different, according as the arms are bent to the right or to the left. That bent to the right he calls the true Swastika ; that bent to the left he calls Suavastika ; but he gives no authority for the statement. Prof. Goodyear gives the title of "Meander" to that form of Swastika which bends two or more times. This form of the cross is some- times represented with dots or points in the corners of the intersections, and occasionally the. same, when without bent ends, to which Zmigrodzki gives the name of "Croia Swasticale."
There are several varieties possibly related to the Swastika which have been found in almost every part of the globe. It has been called by different names in different countries, though in later years nearly all countries have accepted the ancient sanscrit name here used. Many theories have been presented concerning its symbolism, its relation to ancient deities and its
- *Thomas Wilson, curator, Department of Prehistoric Anthropology, United States National Museum.
407
INDIAN TRIBES
representation to certain qualities. In the estimation of certain writers it has been respectively the emblem of Zeus or Baal, of the sun, of the sun- god, of the sun-chariot of Agni the fire-god, of Indra the rain-god, of the sky-of the sky-god, and finally the deity of all deities-the great God, the Maker and Ruler of the Universe. It has also been held to symbolize light, or the god of light of the forked lightning, and of water. It is believed by some to be the oldest Aryan symbol. In the estimation of others it represents Brahma, Vishnu and Siva-Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. It appears in the footprints of Buddha, engraved upon the solid rock on the mountains of India. It stood for the Jupiter Tonans, and Pluvius of the Latins, and the Thor of the Scandinavians. In the opinion of at least one investigator it had an intimate relation to the Lotus sign of Egypt and Persia. Some authors attributed a phallic meaning to it. Others have recognized it as representing the generative principle of mankind, making it the symbol of the female. Its appearance to the persons of certain god- desses has caused it to be claimed as a sign of fecundity.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.