While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Arts and industries.-While the material culture of the sedentary people
of this great territory, as revealed by ethnological and archeological
investigations, is sufficiently homogeneous to warrant its designation as "the
Pueblo culture," there are many local differences in architecture and in
building materials, due chiefly to the influence of environment. In the northern
portions particularly, and scattered here and there almost through out the area,
are the remains of dwellings built in recesses of cliffs or canon walls, in some
cases the natural cavities having been enlarged or modified by artificial means,
in others the cliff face having been practically honeycombed to servo as
habitations. These are the cliff-dwellings (q. v.) built and occupied by the
ancestors of the present Pueblos, no doubt for purposes of defense against
ancient enemies. In the valleys and on the mesa tops the structures varied
according to the available building materials and to the exigencies of the
sites. In the northern parts of the Pueblo area the houses were generally of
sandstone, readily quarried near at hand; in some places blocks of lava, or
tufa, were used. In the southern valleys, especially along the Gila and the
Salt, adobe (q. v.) was the material usually employed. The groups of dwellings
were generally compact structures of several stories, with many small rooms made
necessary owing partly to the scarcity of suitable timber for roofing larger
structures and partly to the lack of means of transporting it, for, like other
Indians, the Pueblos had no horses or donkeys before the coming of the
whites. The villages were often rectangular, with open courts, but usually there
was little fixed plan of outline, new dwellings being added wherever and
whenever need demanded (although sometimes influenced by the direction of the
sun), often resulting in great community groups of houses forming irregularly
oblong, square, semicircular, circular, and elliptical ground-plans, with wings
and minor projections. The pueblos were generally built in terrace fashion; i.
e., the upper tiers of houses were set back of those next below, so that the
roofs of the lower stories formed a kind of front yard for those next above.
Unlike the dwellings of to-day, the lower stories were without doors, entrance
being gained by means of ladders and a hatch way in the roof. The upper houses
were and still are reached by means of movable ladders, or by masonry steps
built against the outer walls and resting on the roofs of the houses below. In
the ancient pueblos the fireplace was generally in the form of a shallow box or
pit in the middle of the floor, the smoke finding egress through the hatchway as
in some of the kivas to-day. Corner fireplaces were also in use, but chimneys,
as well as the dome-shaped ovens built on the ground or on the roofs, and
paneled doors and shutters, were doubtless derived from the Spaniards. Floors
were paved with stone slabs or plastered smooth with adobe mortar like the walls
and roofs. Accompanying each pueblo was at least one kiva (q. v.); indeed the
belief has been advanced that the kiva formed the nucleus of the ancient pueblo,
which grow up around it. The houses are constructed and owned by the women, the
men helping with the heavy work, such as quarrying stone and hauling and
emplacing the beams. The Pueblos made good basketry (q. v.), but it is not the
equal of that of some of the tribes of northern California, although some of the
Hopi manufacture basket placques in two distinct styles of weaving, excellently
ornamented with anthropomorphic and other figures in harmonious colors derived
from native substances, now largely superseded by the dyes of commerce. As
potters and weavers the Pueblos have not been excelled by any Indians N. of
Mexico. Their earthenware vessels, ancient and modern, consist of practically
every form known to the aborigines, from large rough cooking and storage vessels
to delicately modeled and elaborately painted jars, bowls, platters, bottles,
ladles, and box-shaped utensils.
Many of the ancient Pueblos, especially those of the
northern area, may be designated as horticulturists rather than as
agriculturists, so intensive was their method of cultivation. Their small fields
were irrigated from living streams or from storage reservoirs, the chief crop
being corn. Cotton also was raised, the product being woven into everyday
clothing and ceremonial cloaks, kilts, and leggings, which were extensively
traded to other tribes. The Hopi were and still are the principal cotton weavers
of all the Pueblos, but the native cotton has given place almost entirely to
trade stuffs. After the introduction of sheep by the Spaniards. the weaving of
native wool, as well as of strands of bayeta on rude hand loons, became an
important industry. It is believed that weaving was introduced among the Navaho
by Pueblo women adopted into that tribe. Many so-called "Navaho blankets" are
really the product of Hopi and Zuni looms, operated by both men and women. In
the southern Pueblo area especially, agriculture was conducted on a large scale,
and elaborate and extensive systems of irrigation (q. v.) were employed. Such
works, utilized by an entire community, were constructed under a communal
system; and indeed this method is still largely followed by all the Pueblos. In
addition to fields of corn, wheat, pumpkins, melons, etc., small garden patches
of onions, beans, chile, etc., near the houses are cultivated, water being daily
conveyed to them in jars by the women, to whom the gardens belong.
In addition to their agriculture the Pueblos hunted to
some extent, and there are still some excellent hunters among
them. The deer, antelope, bear, and mountain lion were the larger game sought,
and the eastern Pueblos hunted also the buffalo on the plains. Rabbits abound
throughout the Pueblo country, and are hunted individually as well as by large
groups of men and boys, who surround a wide area and gradually drawing together
entrap the rabbits and dispatch
them with boomerang-shaped hunting sticks. Traps also are employed, especially
for catching small mammals and birds, including eagles, which are highly prized
on account of their feathers, so largely used in ceremony. Fish and
other products of the water are never eaten, and various animals are tabooed as
food by the members of certain clans. In early times the turkey was
domesticated, and there is evidence that large flocks were "herded" in much the
same manner as are sheep and goats at the present time. A few turkeys, as well
as eagles, are still kept in captivity, but only for their feathers. The only
other domestic animal was the dog, but there is no evidence that the Pueblos
employed this animal as a beast of burden like the tribes of the plains. Horses,
asses, horned cattle, sheep, and goats, like wheat, grapes, peaches, and apples,
now more or less extensively grown, were not known to the Indians before the
coming of the Spaniards in the 16th century. In south Arizona, in association
with ancient ruins, pictographs and figurines representing a llama-like
quadruped have been found, the rock-pictures indicating the animals as being
herded by men with bolas.
The ancient clothing of Pueblo men consisted typically
of a short tunic of deerskin and trousers of the same material reaching to the
knees; leggings of skin or of cotton, fastened at the knees, held in place by a
narrow garter woven in pattern; and moccasins of deerskin with rawhide soles
neatly sewn with sinew. Knitted footless stockings of yarn are-now commonly worn
by both men and women, with or without leggings. A piece of skin (now usually
fresh goatskin), with hairy side inward and entirely incasing the foot, was used
over the moccasin in snowy weather. The breechcloth is universally worn by
males. The warriors wore a close-fitting cap of skin, ventilated with numerous
holes and decorated with feathers; this cap is still worn as a part of the
ceremonial costume of the Priests of the Bow, of Zuni. Evidence produced by
excavation in the cliff -dwellings indicates that garments woven of yucca fiber,
as well as of cotton with feathers, were al<o used in early times. Sandals of
yucca or other fibers were worn instead of moccasins. The hair of the Pueblo men
is "banged" above the eyes, cut horizontally at the neck line, and the back hair
gathered and tied with a woven band into a tight knot behind. A headband, now
usually a bandana handkerchief, is always worn by men and boys of the western
Pueblos, but those of the Rio Grande valley, except during ceremonies, wear the
hair in side plaits and require no headband. After the introduction of sheep,
woven woolen garments largely replaced the skin tunics and trousers of the men,
and the cheap cotton fabrics of commerce in time superseded woolen goods to a
great extent. Robes of twisted strands of rabbit skin and wildcat skin were worn
in cold weather, and were employed also as bedding; but these have given place
almost entirely to the bright-colored blankets, among the Hopi (who alone among
the Pueblos now employ this method of hairdressing) represent squash blossoms,
symbols of fertility. Other Pueblo women do not bang the hair, but part it in
the middle and wear it in a braid at each side. Necklaces, pendants, bracelets,
earrings, and finger rings of silver are commonly worn, particularly during
outdoor ceremonies, and on gala occasions Hopi girls wear as ear pendants small
tablets ornamented with turquoise mosaic.
