Simply written text, accompanied by detailed line illustrations of plants, explains how to select and mix natural colors of wool and prepare "recipes" for producing specific colors of dye from desert plants, among them single-flowered actinea for yellow, alder bark for a soft brown, the Rocky Mountain bee plant for a pale greenish yellow, more.
Chaco Canyon, the great Ancestral Pueblo site of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, remains a central problem of Southwestern archaeology. Chaco, with its monumental “great houses,” was the center of a vast region marked by “outlier” great houses. The canyon itself has been investigated for over a century, but only a few of the more than 200 outlier great houses—key to understanding Chaco and its times—have been excavated. This volume explores the Chaco and post-Chaco eras in the northern San Juan area through extensive excavations at the Bluff Great House, a major Chaco “outlier” in Utah. Bluff’s massive great house, great kiva, and earthen berms are described and compared to other great houses in the northern Chaco region. Those assessments support intriguing new ideas about the Chaco region and the effect of the collapse of Chaco Canyon on “outlying” great houses. New insights from the Bluff Great House clarify the construction and use of great houses during the Chaco era and trace the history of great houses in the generations after Chaco’s decline. An innovative comparative study of the northern and southern portions of the Chaco world (the northern San Juan area around Bluff and the Cibola area around Zuni) leads to new ideas about population aggregation and regional abandonment in the Southwest. Appendixes present details and descriptions of artifacts recovered from Bluff: ceramics, projectile points, pollen analyses, faunal remains, bone tools, ornaments, and more. This book is one of only a handful of reports on Chacoan great houses in the northern San Juan region. It provides an in-depth study of the Chaco era and clarifies the relationship of “outlying” great houses to Chaco Canyon. Research at the Bluff Great House begins to answer key questions about the nature of Chaco and its region, and the history of the northern San Juan in the Chaco and post-Chaco worlds.
Originally published in 1979, this volume acts as a reference for the history textiles. It asks questions on the effect of technology on textiles, how did particular historical periods and locations expand or limit the possibilities for the manufacture of fabrics and how the textile history related to politics and economics, sociology and psychology, art and engineering, anthropology and archaeology, chemistry and physics. Addressing these questions, the author surveys the development of the technical components of fabrics and discusses the textiles of selected places and times. She uses prose, drawings and more than 130 photographs to show how each era of textile production reflects its age. This book is designed to serve as a college text and as a reference work for museum researchers. With sections including illustrations and diagrams; key terminology; spinning wool; spinning and raw materials; single ply and cord and fabric construction.
This comprehensive narrative traces the history of the Navajos from their origins to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Based on extensive archival research, traditional accounts, interviews, historic and contemporary photographs, and firsthand observation, it provides a detailed, up-to-date portrait of the Diné past and present that will be essential for scholars, students, and interested general readers, both Navajo and non-Navajo. As Iverson points out, Navajo identity is rooted in the land bordered by the four sacred mountains. At the same time, the Navajos have always incorporated new elements, new peoples, and new ways of doing things. The author explains how the Diné remember past promises, recall past sacrifices, and continue to build upon past achievements to construct and sustain North America's largest native community. Provided is a concise and provocative analysis of Navajo origins and their relations with the Spanish, with other Indian communities, and with the first Anglo-Americans in the Southwest. Following an insightful account of the traumatic Long Walk era and of key developments following the return from exile at Fort Sumner, the author considers the major themes and events of the twentieth century, including political leadership, livestock reduction, the Code Talkers, schools, health care, government, economic development, the arts, and athletics. Monty Roessel (Navajo), an outstanding photographer, is Executive Director of the Rough Rock Community School. He has written and provided photographs for award-winning books for young people.
Chronicles first 15 years in life of a native Santee Sioux Indian in mid-19th century: childhood memories, training in the hunt, woodlore, religious practices, medicine men, more. 13 illustrations.
