The Gift of Spiderwoman: Southwestern Textiles

From the Book

When Coronado and his band of Spanish explorers entered what is now Arizona and New Mexico in 1540, instead of the gold and jewels they were seeking, they found numerous villages of Indians who lived in multi-roomed stone and mud houses often several stories high. The people of these villages, which are called pueblos in Spanish, farmed large tracts of land, raising maize, pumpkins, beans, and other plants including cotton, which they wove into clothing for themselves and which they traded to the wild Indians for dried meat, buffalo hides, and other things!

Cotton was introduced from Mexico to the Indians of southern Arizona and New Mexico about the time of Christ, and by about A.D. 800 it had spread north to the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians, as well. Shortly afterward, the back strap loom was introduced, on which the Pueblos wove narrow strips of cloth and belts. By A.D. 1100, the Pueblos had developed a wide, vertical, heddle-operated loom, and were weaving shirts, kilts, and breech cloths for the men, and for the women, a manta or dress which was wrapped around the body under one arm and fastened over the opposite shoulder, and belted around the waist. Both men and women wore the manta as a shawl around the shoulders in cold weather. These mantas were wider than long, the length being measured along the warps, and were decorated by painting, embroidery, or by woven stripes in different colors (Plate 1). Mantas were frequently given to the Spanish explorers and later became a standard item of tribute to the Spanish settlers.

In 1598, the Spanish, under Don Juan de O