Aboriginal American Weaving ---- BY ---- MISS MARY LOIS KISSELL, American Museum of Natural History, NEW YORK CITY. A Paper Read before The National Association of Cotton Manufacturers at their Eighty-eighth Meeting at Mechanics Fair Building, Boston, Mass. , April 27th, 1910. [Illustration] ABORIGINAL AMERICAN WEAVING. MISS MARY LOIS KISSELL, American Museum of Natural History, New York City. Wonderful as is the development of modern machinery for themanufacture of American textiles--machinery which seems almost humanin the way it converts raw materials into finished cloth; just assurprising are the most primitive looms of the American aborigines, who without the aid of machinery make interesting weavings with only abar upon which to suspend the warp threads while the human handcompletes all the processes of manufacture. Modern man's inventivegenius in the textile art has been expended upon perfecting themachinery, while primitive man's ingenuity has resulted in making abeautiful weaving with very simple means. No doubt could we know the history of primitive loom work in Americaprior to the coming of the white man, we would find an extendeddistribution of weaving, but all early textiles have been lost owingto the destructability of the material and the lack of climatic andother conditions suitable for their preservation--conditions such asare present in the hot desert lands of the Southwest and the coastregion of Peru. However, so many impressions of weavings have beenfound on early pottery as to assure us that beautiful work of thiskind was made in eastern, middle and southern United States. Inwestern British Columbia at the present time there are tribes carryingon certain forms of weaving which show four interesting types. [Illustration: FIGURE 1. --KWAKIUTL SQUAW, WEAVING. ] The simplest type is the cedar bark mat woven of flat strips inhorizontal and vertical lines. In beginning wide strips of the innerbark are hung from their centre over a crossbar of wood which issupported at either end by an upright beam. The halves of the stripshanging in front are then split into strands of the desired width anda line of fine twining woven across to hold them securely. The checkerweaving of the mat is now begun at the left edge by doubling the weftelement over the last warp and then weaving with the doubled elementover and under one warp until the right edge is reached where it isturned back and slipped under an inch of the weaving just completed. Figure 1 shows a squaw at work on such a mat, and when she hascompleted this half of the mat the second half will be undertaken. Shefinishes the edge by turning up the warp ends below the last line ofweft and binds them with a row of twining just above this last weft. [Illustration: FIGURE 2. --MAT WITH CHECKED DESIGN. ] In their industries, primitive people always utilize the materialsfound in their environment, because no means is afforded them, as inmodern life, for the transportation of materials from a distance. British Columbia is rich in cedar trees, so it is not strange thatmaterial from this tree enters so largely into the weaving of thisregion. Cedar bark lends itself very delightfully to the technic ofthese mats, and its golden brown checked surface is at times crossedby black lines or broken by a group of black checks in simple designs. These vary greatly, but only one example (Figure 2) can be shown here. [Illustration: FIGURE 3. --PRIMITIVE LOOM WITH PLAITED MAT. ] The second type of weaving, also of cedar bark, is begun like the lastmat, but the elements are so placed as to cross the surfacediagonally--alternate strips passing diagonally downward to the rightand left as in Figure 3. These strips are not woven but plaited overand under each other without the addition of a weft element as inweaving. When the side edge is reached the strips turn over at rightangles and continue to plait in the changed oblique direction. Thelower edges are finished by bending the elements at right angles andplaiting them obliquely back for an inch into the completed surface. Checked weaving and plaiting is employed in a variety of ways, foraside from mattings it enter into the construction of baskets, pouches, bags, sails, raincoats, baby's hoods, and a number of otherarticles. [Illustration: FIGURE 4. --ANOTHER TYPE OF LOOM. ] Cedar bark which has been softened and shredded plays an importantpart in the clothing of this region, especially in blankets like thatin Figure 4. The blanket here, however, is not of cedar bark but ofgoat's hair for a number of materials are made use of by this technic. In this weaving the warps are not thrown over the crossbeam as in theother loom but are supported on a cord which itself is bound to thebeam by another cord. Neither are the warps united by a strip of weftrunning over and under but by a two strand weft element which twinesabout the warps. To my knowledge this form of weaving has never beenreproduced by machinery as no machine can make threads twine. Theblankets of cedar bark are undecorated, but those of wool frequentlyhave strands of another color passed across the surface and caughtinto the weaving from time to time, producing similar designs to thatin Figure 4. As observed in the illustration the lines of weft are notdriven home but are set some distance apart, the space between varyingon different garments. At the lower edge, however, there is frequentlyfound a band of closely woven twining, at other times a band of fur, or a long fringe may complete the edge. [Illustration: FIGURE 5. --UNFINISHED CHILKAT BLANKET. ] The most beautiful weaving of western British Columbia is the Chilkatblanket, Figures 5 and 6, a weaving which is unique in technic anddesign, both in primitive and modern textile art. It is a ceremonialgarment and the gorgeous designs in white, blue, yellow and black areof totemic significance and relate to the ceremonial life of theIndian. In earliest times this blanket was undecorated, a plain fieldof white; then color was introduced on the white field in stripes ofherring-bone pattern typifying raven's tail, because similar to thevanes of the tail feathers; and later the elaborate geometric designsof present day blankets developed. These designs are first paintedupon a pattern board the size and shape of those which are to appearupon the blanket, and it is from this pattern board that the squawweaves her pattern. But although the woman (Figure 7) does weave theblanket, the man also has his part in the process as he furnishes theloom, the pattern board and the skin of the goat. The squaw preparesall the materials and collects the bark, for the warp is of shreddedtwo-ply cedar bark wrapped with a thread of wool, while the weft isentirely of the soft wool of the mountain goat. [Illustration: FIGURE 6. --OLD CHILKAT BLANKET. ] [Illustration: FIGURE 7. --SQUAW WEAVING CHILKAT BLANKET. ] Lieut. G. T. EMMONS tells us that the goat of this region abounds inthe rugged coast mountains from Puget Sound to Cook's Inlet, but isunknown on the outlying islands. Its preference is the glacial beltand snow-fields of the most broken country and the terraced sides ofthe precipitous cliffs. It is gregarious in habit being found in bandsof from ten to fifty or more. From September until April the skin isin prime condition with an abundance of soft wool under a heavycovering of long coarse hair; but the hunting is only done in theautumn. To prepare for the plucking, the skin must be kept wet on theunderside so it is moistened and rolled up for several days, thusloosening the hold of the fleece. With thumb and fingers of bothhands the squaw, seated upon the ground, pushes the fleece from her, procuring by this process great patches of wool and hair. Then thehairs are plucked out and thrown away and the wool is ready to bespun. During the spinning the woman also sits upon the ground withlegs outstretched, with the crude wool by her left side within easyreach. This she draws out with her left hand and feeds to her right, in the amount necessary to form the required size of thread. As it isreceived between the palm of the right hand and the right thigh, it isrolled from the body and falls to the side in loose, connected thread. This soft thread is next spun between the palm of the hand and thethigh to form a single tightly twisted strand; and by the same processtwo of these strands are rolled together to form the weft thread forthe blanket. In technic the blanket is related to the last onedescribed for it is a twine weaving, but a twilled twine as the twostrand weft encloses two warps at a move and with each succeeding lineof weft advances one warp giving the surface a twilled effect. It isinteresting that the small blocks of design are woven separatelysomething as a tapestry, and later the blocks are sewed together witha thread of sinew from the caribou or whale. [Illustration: FIGURE 8. --A THIRD TYPE OF LOOM. ] [Illustration: FIGURE 9. --NAVAJO LOOM. ] The weaving from this region which most nearly approaches machine workin process of making is the dog-hair and goat's wool blanket. It iswoven upon a loom of two revolving cylindrical beams, supported byupright posts at either end (Figure 8). The end of the warp thread isattached to a staying cord stretched from post to post about midwaybetween the revolving beams. The warp then encircles the loom, catchesunder the staying cord, then turns and travels back to its startingpoint, there to catch under the staying cord and repeat the operation. The weft moves across the warps as in twilled cloth, over two, undertwo, with an advance of one warp at each line of weft. Dog's hair, duck down and goat's wool are the materials used, especially thelatter. These materials are spun in two-ply thread twisted partly uponthe thigh of the weaver and finished on a spindle. Leaving this weaving area in western British Columbia we pass to theother locality of note in North America where primitive weaving ispractised, --in southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Herethe loom work is at a more advanced stage of development than that ofthe northern area, the weavers making use of a loom frame, sheds, healds, batten and an improvised shuttle. The Navajo Indians are themost skilled weavers north of Mexico and a description of theirweaving is fairly typical of this area. As the warps are of softpliable threads they must of necessity be stretched between two beams. These are suspended vertically if the weaving is to be of any greatsize, the distance between them being that of the proposed length ofthe blanket (Figure 9). The warp threads are not stretched across thebeams with an oval movement but are laced over them, forming twosheds, the upper of which is held intact by means of the shed-rod, andthe lower by a set of healds passing over a heald-rod. A wooden forkserves as a reed and a slender twig as a shuttle. Upon this twig isloosely wound from end to end the weft thread. The shuttle at one movecrosses less than half of the warps as the batten--a flat stick ofhard oak--is too short to open more than that length of the shed forthe passage of the shuttle. [Illustration: FIGURE 10. --HOPI BLANKET. ] [Illustration: FIGURE 11. --HOPI WEAVING. ] [Illustration: FIGURE 12. --MEXICAN SERAPE. ] In Figure 10 only a portion of a blanket from the Hopi Indians isshown, that the delicate design may be better seen. A number of Hopipatterns have this fine white line of tracery upon the dark backgroundand it is this play of the fine line pattern on the fabric which isone of the chief beauties of Hopi weavings. The sparkle of white iseven more brilliant in Figure 11, another smaller weaving from thesame people. They make constant use of the diagonal or twilledtechnic, a weave which requires that the warps be divided into foursheds, the upper supplied with a shed stick, the three lower withhealds. The sheds are shifted in a variety of orders for theconstruction of different patterns. [Illustration: FIGURE 13. --HUICHOL WEAVING. ] One of the most beautiful weavings the writer has ever seen from thesouthwest is that pictured in Figure 12, which is, however, only asmall center portion of the beautiful sirape from Mexico. The patternin two colors of indigo upon a tan colored ground is especiallyeffective, while the tiny blue dots sprinkled upon the tan surface andthe tan dots over the blue design add a subtle and delightful charmnot frequently met with. The last two examples, Figures 13 and 14, are also from Mexico, thefirst a bit of weaving with animal designs from the Huichol Indians, and the last a belt loom from the same people. In making belts andother narrow fabrics the loom is either horizontal or oblique inposition, stretching from some post or tree to the weaver and thereattached to a loop which passes either about the waist or under thethighs and rendered tense by the weight of the weaver. These belts maybe woven with two or four sheds according to the style of weavingdesired, while another method of pattern work on two shed weaving hasthe addition of a round stick run into the warps so as to raisecertain threads while the weft passes two or three times underneathproducing a variety of damask weaving. The stretch between these simple methods of primitive peoples andmachine methods of modern life is great indeed and we will longcontinue to wonder that with such crude devices these people couldproduce results which compare favorably with our modern weavings. [Illustration: FIGURE 14. --MEXICAN BELT LOOM. ]