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Miscellaneous: Visitor Etiquette, History & Timeline of Indigenous New Mexicans, Kivas, Horno
Arts & Crafts: Weaving, Pueblo Indian Pottery, Jewelry, Kachinas
Museums/Centers: Acoma Tourist & Visitation Center, A:Shiwi A:Wan Museum & Heritage Center, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Deming Luna Mimbres Museum, Geronimo Springs Museum, Gila Visitor Center, Indian Arts Research Center at the School of American Research, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Mescalero Apache Cultural Center Museum, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, Museum of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Navajo National Museum (Window Rock, AZ), Palace of the Governors, Poeh Cultural Center, Pueblo of Pojoaque, Red Rock Museum, San Ildefonso Pueblo Museum, Walatowa Visitor Center, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian

Weaving

Whether produced on upright looms used by Pueblo and Navajo weavers or European treadle looms brought by Spanish colonists from Mexico in the early 1600s, the region’s textiles have long cast a spell on collectors and admirers of the craft.

The Navajo give a mystical explanation for the power that mysteriously emerges from the warp and weft of their cotton and wool yarns. They believe Spider Woman taught them the art, with teaching tools that included lightning, sunlight, white shell and rock crystal.

However, scholars theorize the Navajo learned to weave from the Pueblo people around 1650. Evidence indicates the Pueblo people were the region’s first weavers 2,000 years ago. They made baskets, robes, sandals, plaited and twined mats from fibers such as yucca and bast fiber woven and decorated with feathers and rabbit fur. Around A.D. 700, the Pueblos began loom weaving with indigenous cotton, often using a backstrap loom, belted around the waist. With these materials Hopi and Pueblo weavers advanced the art, producing pieces of higher quality, woven more tightly and with more detailed designs.

Weaving evolved yet again when the Spanish settlers arrived, bringing churro sheep whose wool was transformed on the European treadle loom into serapes, blankets and rugs. The Rio Grande blanket was one of the most widely recognized textiles to emerge from this tradition. This weft-faced, striped blanket was usually woven as two separate panels sewn together, creating the telltale center seam.

Although they are generally distinct in patterns, colors and weaving techniques, some of the Pueblo, Navajo and Rio Grande weaving styles overlap due to contact among the cultures.

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