DISCUSSION QUESTIONS/TOPICS

  • Research flash floods and how they originate. Make a diagram of conditions necessary for flash floods.
  • Discuss prehistoric weaving. In most pueblo societies men were the weavers. Looms are found in kivas, which served as male clan "clubhouses" when not used ceremonially. Cotton grown in Arizona and New Mexico was traded north where the climate was too cold to grow it. The cotton may have been raw or already spun into yarn. Cotton aprons, capes, and belts were made of the yarn. Yucca leaves were woven into sandals and baskets and beautiful sashes were woven with domestic dog hair (some examples are displayed at the Mesa Verde Museum).
  • Wool was not used until Spanish sheep were introduced. Navajos, who became sheepherders, probably learned weaving techniques from the Pueblo Indians and soon were famous for their intricately designed wool rugs. These rugs were popular trade items with other tribes and later were modified for the non-Indian tourist market. Navajos may not have been in the Four Corners area until after the Ancestral Puebloans left.

FURTHER READING

  • Arizona Traveler Guidebooks
    1988, Arizona Parks and Monuments, Renaissance House Publishers, Frederick, CO.
  • Benedict, Ruth
    1982, Tales of the Cochiti Indians, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.
  • Courlander, Harold
    1987, The Fourth World of the Hopis, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.
  • Dozier, Edward
    1982,  Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York, NY.
  • Dutton, Bertha and Caroline Olin
    1986, Myths and Legends of the Indians of the Southwest: Hopi, Acoma, Tewa, Zuni, Bellerophon Books, Santa Barbara, CA.
  • Marriott, Alice
    1996, The Magic Hummingbird, A Hopi Folktale, Kiva Publishing, Santa Fe, NM.
  • Mullet, G. M.
    1984, Spiderwoman Stories: Legends of the Hopi Indians, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.
  • Seaman, P. David (Ed.)
    1995, Born a Chief: The Nineteenth Century Hopi Boyhood of Edmund Nequatewa, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.
  • Sevillano, Mando
    1986, The Hopi Way: Tales From a Vanishing Culture, Northland Press, Flagstaff, AZ.
  • Sekaquaptewa, Eugene
    1994, Coyote and the Winnowing Birds, Tsaayantotaqam Tsiroot, A Traditional Hopi Tale, Clear Light Publishing, Santa Fe, NM.
  • Slifer, Dennis and James Duffield
    1994, Kokopelli: Fluteplayer Images in Rock Art, Ancient City Press, Santa Fe, NM.
  • Underhill, Ruth
    1991, Life in the Pueblos,     Ancient City Press, Santa Fe, NM.