# What materials/fibers did the American Indians use to make cloth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863 "2003-01-25T15:36:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/1 "2003-01-25T15:36:27Z")
How do you make woven “cloth” without a fixed loom like the American Indians did in making blankets and such? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/2 "2003-01-25T16:06:23Z")
Those blankets were government issue from the U.S. Army, once the tribes were beaten into submission and confined to reservations. Same with frybread: it didn’t become Indian food until they were confined to reservations, couldn’t hunt any more, and had to figure out what to do with the government-issue flour that was all they had left to survive on. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/3 "2003-01-25T16:21:24Z")
You are perpetuating ignorance, **Jomo**. Southwest Indians were weaving blankets ands other cloth long before European contact: [The Birth and Growth of the Art of Navaho Blanket-Waving](http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/inbl/body.1_div.2.html) > [@](#): > > \*\*When the European first discovered the American Indians of the Southwest he found them wearing blankets and other garments of their own weaving, mostly made of cotton, which they grew, cleaned, carded, spun, and dyed themselves. Cabez de Vaca, in his Relacion, states that he found the natives wearing linen and woolen cloths, and at one place fine cotton shawls, all of their own weaving. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/4 "2003-01-25T16:26:50Z")
Native Americans used leather for the most part. Woven textiles did not appear until well after the European settlers had become widespread. See [this link](http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/native.html) for a brief, but interesting, desription of some of the techniques used for traditional clothing manufacture. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/5 "2003-01-25T16:27:44Z")
I don’t know about Native American weaving per se, but there are lots of kinds of weaving that can be done without our modern floor looms. There are folks in South America that still weave on back-strap looms. In back-strap loom weaving, the warp threads (the ones that run the length of a piece of cloth) are measured out and then one (or both) ends are tied to straight pieces of wood. The far end is tied to a fixed object (e.g., a tree) and the is held at each end by a belt or strap that goes around the weaver’s back (hence, back-strap). This enables the weaver to change the tension easily by leaning forward or back. The Navaho people use frame looms to weave their blankets. Their looms are essentially big square frames of wood, with the warp threads wound round and round the long axis. Other early looms (in Norther Europe, I think) had weighted warps. The warp threads were hung over a horizontal bar and the tension was provided by rocks (or other weights) at the opposite ends. And for narrow pieces (belts, tump-lines, etc) finger weaving works pretty well. Archergal, spinner & occasional weaver You ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/6 "2003-01-25T16:37:37Z")
With regard to the materials used: > [@](#): > > \*\*The fabrics woven and used in the making and decoration of pottery, according to Holmes, consisted generally of the fibre of bark, flax, hemp, nettles, and grasses, which were spun into thread of various sizes; or of splints of wood, twigs, roots, vines, porcupine quills, feathers, and a variety of animal tissues, either plaited or used in an untwisted state. The articles produced were mats, baskets, nets, bags, plain cloths, and entire garments, such as capes, hats, belts, and sandals. > > When cotton made its appearance in America is not known, yet it must have been quite early, for in the ruined and prehistoric Cliff Dwellings many cotton fabrics have been found. Holmes, Bandelier, Nordenskiold, Fewkes, and others have described the cottons thus found. At Awatobi, one of the ruined pueblos of the Hopi, fragments of cloth of cotton and agave fibre, and of cotton alone were gathered. > \*\* The use of looms also predates European contact: > [@](#): > > \*\*According to the Rev. Father A. G. Morice, O.M.I., for many years a missionary among the Dénés of British Columbia, doubtless a branch of the Navaho family, the loom used by these western Indians is much more crude than that of our Navahos. It consists simply of a foursquare heavy frame, the warp strings being attached to the top and bottom beams, with no method for tightening the warp. He states that the only weaving they did was of rabbit-skin blankets. The skins were twisted—corresponding to the spinning of yarn—by first soaking them in water and then twisting the strips by rolling them upon the naked thigh. Each skin was made to yield a single band, and each band was knotted end to end so as to form a continuous cord. This cord was then used both as warp and woof, and was of the simplest and crudest kind of weaving, no batten of any kind being used. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/7 "2003-01-25T16:52:01Z")
Sorry, I goofed. Should have checked before posting. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-materials-fibers-did-the-american-indians-use-to-make-cloth/150863/8 "2003-01-25T17:42:14Z")
The natives of the Pacific Northwest bred extra wooly dogs and used their fur much like wool for weaving. They also wove a surprising number of things, including clothes, from cedar bark. Even neolithic people made cloth. It wasn’t 500 count linen but it isn’t all that hard to do.