In the very earliest accounts which we have of Tusayan the Hopi are
said to raise cotton and to weave it into mantles. These mantles, or
"towels" as they were styled by Espejo, were, according to Castañeda,
ornamented with embroidery, and had tassels at the corners. In early
times garments were made of the fiber of the maguey, and of feathers
and rabbit skins. Fabrics made of animal fiber are mentioned by Friar
Marcos de Niza, and he was told that the inhabitants of Totonteac
obtained the material from which they were made from animals as large
as the greyhounds which the father had with him. The historical
references which can be mentioned to prove that the Tusayan people,
when they were first visited, knew how to spin and weave are numerous,
and need not be quoted here. That the people of Awatobi made cotton
fabrics there is no doubt, for it is distinctly stated by early
visitors that they were acquainted with the art of weaving, and some
of the presents made to the first Spanish explorers were of native
cotton.
The archeological evidence supports the historical in this particular,
and several fragments of cloth were found in our excavations in the
western mounds of the village. These fragments were of cotton and
agave fiber, of cotton alone, and in one instance of the hair of some
unknown animal. No signs of the famous rabbit-skin blankets were seen,
and from the perishable nature of the material of which they were made
it would be strange if any traces had been discovered. At Sikyatki a
small textile fragment made of feathers was found in one of the
burial vases, but no feather garments or even fragments of the same
were unearthed at Awatobi.
A woven rope of agave fiber and many charred strings of the same
material were found in a niche in the wall of a house in the eastern
section, and from the same room there was taken a string, over a yard
long, made of human hair. It was suggested to me by one of the Hopi
that this string was part of the coiffure of an Awatobi maid, and that
it was probably used to tie up her hair in whorls above the ears, as
is still the Hopi custom.
The whole number of specimens of textile fabrics found at Awatobi was
small, and their character disappointing for study, for the conditions
of burial in the soil are not so good for their preservation as in the
dry caves or cliff houses, from which beautifully preserved cloth,
made at a contemporary period, has been taken.