Pueblo Crafts | by Ruth Underhill
This is the fifth volume in the series of books published by the Division of Education, Bureau of Indian Affairs setting forth in popular language what is known about Indian arts and crafts of specific areas. We have drawn freely from authorities and their writings in preparing the material. Much that will be found in these books has been previously published elsewhere.
| Title | Pueblo Crafts |
| Author | Ruth Underhill |
| Publisher | Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence |
| Year | 1945 |
| Copyright | 1945, Haskell Indian Junior College |
| Amazon | Pueblo Crafts |
Indian Handcraft Series- This is the fifth volume in the series of books published by the Division of Education, Bureau of Indian Affairs setting forth in popular language what is ...
- Chapter I. Pueblo Background
- IMAGINE an exhibition of pueblo crafts. On one table is a yucca ring bas-ket made practically as it would have been a thousand years ago. On the next is a ...
- Pueblo Background. Continued
- Early Pueblo Period 700-1100 A.D. In the former period, the influence from the south acted mostly at a distance. New people now arrived with their new ways and ...
- Period Of Confusion 1823-1880 A.D
- In 1823 Mexico, including our Southwest, won independence from Spain. From then until the railroads came in the 1880's there was a period of confusion. During ...
- Modern Period 1880
- In the 1880's the railroads were built through pueblo country. It is this date, much more than national allegiance, which marks the next change in craft ...
- List Of Pueblos With Their Language Groups
- UTO-AZTECAN Hopi First Mesa Walpi Sichomovl Hano (Tewa language) Polacca Second Mesa Mishongnovi Shipaulovi Shungopovi Toreva Third Mesa New Oraibi Hotevilla ( ...
- Chapter II. Basketry
- IN their early days pueblo people made so much equipment from basketry materials that the first explorers called them the Basketmakers. Their product ranged ...
- Basketry Coloring Of Second Mesa
- Earth Colors The clay or rock is ground on a small flat stone, then mixed with an oil made by chewing squash seeds. The paint is put on the twigs with a bit of ...
- Basketry Coloring Of Second Mesa. Continued
- Twining Twining was another old method of Basketmaker days, now almost gone. It means that two strands at a time are woven in and out through a set of ...
- Chapter III. Weaving. Preparing The Yarn
- STRING Weaving is an art very much like basketry and sometimes the two use the same methods. The main difference is that a basketmaker works mostly with stiff ...
- Cotton
- The first cotton garment found in ruins anywhere in the pueblos dates, by the tree rings, 795 A.D. That is all we know about when cotton arrived. We know that ...
- Cotton. Part 2
- Now he starts revolving the spindle. He rolls it forward along his leg, with the palm of his hand which lies over its longer portion above the whorl. When it ...
- Cotton. Part 3
- Dyeing Yarn After spinning came dyeing. It is hard to tell now how frequently pueblo people colored their yarn and in what shades. Ancient belts and pack ...
- The Loom
- Pueblo looms were not all of one type as many people suppose. Instead, there were two distinct types learned or worked out, perhaps, from different sources.
- The Stick Heddle
- The winding finished, the weaver fixes the final end of her string to one of the bars and then puts in the heddles. These are of the same type for almost all ...
- The Blanket Loom
- The tubular loom is suited to long, narrow fabrics. Peruvian weavers, when they wanted wider cloth, used to sew several strips together. Sometimes, one student ...
- Weaving Tools
- The weaver has his own tools, made of hard, fine grained wood and polished smooth, so they will not catch on the threads. The first is the batten, a slender, ...
- Weaves
- The type of loom does not determine the type of fabric. It is true that the waist loom is more convenient for narrow goods and the blanket loom for broad ones, ...
- Twilled Weave
- In twilled weaving the weft does not pass over every other warp, but over every two, every three, or even more, each weft crossing the warp at a point one ...
- Diamond Weave
- In diamond weave, there is a real change for here uneven numbers of warps must be picked up in order to produce diamond figures which are wide in the middle, ...
- Floated Warp (The Woman's Belt Pattern)
- In the weaving of striped blankets, we noted that color is furnished entirely by the weft, while the warp does not show. In the woman's belt, the opposite is ...
- Embroidery Weaving (sometimes called brocading)
- An unusual form of weaving, practiced only by the Hopi, is found in the brilliantly patterned ends of the man's ceremonial sash. (Plate 111-34) At first sight, ...
- Embroidery Weaving
- Next, he lifts the regular heddle and puts in a weft of invisible tabby; then the extra heddle again. It lifts the same pairs of warps as before and he passes ...
- True Embroidery
- In present days, one of the striking things about pueblo ceremonial dress is the bright colored embroidery on kilts, sashes, shawls and women's dresses. All of ...
- Chapter IV. Pottery Still A Living Art
- WOMEN made the pots, just as they did the baskets, and every woman made her own. This was the case everywhere, in early days, both in the old world and the new, ...
- Pottery Still A Living Art. Part 2
- Next comes the building of the jar beyond the support. The potter pinches the edge of her base until it is thin and irregular, as the picture shows. This ...
- Pottery Still A Living Art. Part 3
- Pointing After the slip, comes painting. The colors, of which we will say more later, are usually red and black. The potter pounds them to powder in a mortar, ...
- Firing Pottery
- The jar will soon crumble unless it is hardened in the fire. Modern manufacturers of dishes have special furnaces for this purpose but the pueblo woman builds ...
- 1. Black On Cream
- Santo Domingo Color. The slip is bentonite, a cream colored clay so fine that it can be polished with a rag instead of a stone. Decoration in rich black, made ...
- 2. Three Colored. Santa Ana
- Colors The kaolin slip is grayish white because of impurities and is generally much worn, since most pieces are old. The red base extends far up the jar, ...
- 3. Black On Mottled Orange. Hopi (First Mesa)
- Colors The slip is of clay, the same kind as that in the jar and when it is fired, shows mottling which ranges from orange to cream, depending on how little ...
- 4. Polished Black Or Polished Red. Santa Clara
- Santa Clara Colors The slip is originally red but can be turned black if the flame is smothered as described on page 87. This pueblo uses mostly the black ...
- 5. Unpainted. Taos, Picuris
- Colors This clay has no slip. It is of a brownish color which bakes to a mottled tan, sometimes almost golden. The potters often allow fire blemishes which ...
- 6. Modern Variegated
- Colors A number of different styles are spoken of in this section, not because they have much in common but because they are new and do not yet fit any ...
- Chapter V. Stone Tools And What They Made. Tools
- WHEN early pueblo men made a trip outside the village, they kept a sharp lookout for choice pieces of stone, their tool material. An alert man might return ...
- Weapons
- The Bow It must have been a great day for pueblo people when they learned about this weapon, somewhere about six or seven hundred A.D. Before that, they had ...
- Work In Skins
- The Use of Skins In every pueblo the hunt brought in a good many buckskins and some of the tougher hides of antelope. These were used for clothing. Mountain ...
- Dressing Furry Skin
- The skins of all furry animals, from fax to buffalo, were dressed with the hair on. This meant that only the flesh side was scraped. Then the skin was strewn ...
- Mining
- The pueblo were one of the few Indian groups which did any mining. Other tribes in the United States region broke off stone to make their tools, but without ...
- Mining. Continued
- The bead usually made is shaped like a small thick button about one sixty-fourth to three-eighths of an inch thick, and one sixteenth to one quarter of an inch ...
- Chapter VI. Music And Painting
- SINGING Pueblo music has been said by one expert to be the most complex of any music among North American Indians. Doubtless the pueblos, a mixed group to ...
- Music And Painting. Part 2
- The Drum At present, the chief instrument for accompanying the dance is the drum. It is played by a drummer who stands at one side of a line of dancers or who ...
- Music And Painting. Part 3
- Modern students have done an amazing work in peeling off these layers glued to cloth and have preserved each one. When the pictures finally stood out, in their ...
- Chapter VII. The Crafts Today
- PUEBLO craft is continuing today but changing fast. One change is of a new kind, unknown in the pueblo history and it has taken place since the railroads ...
- Further Reading On Pueblo Crafts
- THIS list gives only detailed descriptions of craft work. There are many references to craft in more general books but these are given in the reading list of ...
- General
- McGregor, John C. Southwestern Archaeology. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1941. This is the most recent and complete statement on the subject. Meant for ...
- Books On Navaho Weaving Useful For Reference
- Some of the most thorough descriptions of Southwest weaving have been written about the Navaho who learned weaving from the pueblos and whose practice ...
- Publications Of The Bureau Of Indian Affairs
- Prepored primarily for use in Federal Indian schools. Suitable for use in any school. Indian Life And Customs Books-Illustrated The Northern Paiute Indians of ...
My Books
