656 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



Indian tribes of the Plains have a highly developed convention- 

 alized art which they express in worked designs applied to clothing 

 and other objects. Paints are also applied principally to bags, cases, 

 and to the so-called parfleches of rawhide. Decorative designs in 

 beads, quills, and paints are uniformly geometric in composition, 

 although military exploits, time counts, and other historical events 

 are portrayed on garments and other objects of skin in realistic pat- 

 terns. Glass beads were introduced at an early date by French, 

 English, and traders of other nationalities and have tended to sup- 

 plant the sewed decorative embroidery work in dyed and undyed 

 quills. Quills were formerly applied to large areas on the surface of 

 skins in round, square, and linear geometrical designs. One of the 

 best examples of early embroidery work in porcupine quills may be 

 seen in the exhibit of skin garments collected by George Cat] in prior 

 to 1838 from various unidentified tribes. This exhibit is marred 

 somewhat by the damaged condition of the costumes, as the Catlin 

 collection has passed through several fires. Enough remains, how- 

 ever, of the designs to demonstrate the excellence of the work (pi. 29). 

 All tyjDes of geometric design in sewed or embroidered bead and 

 quill work occur upon the garments, bags, and especially moccasins 

 and leggings of any particular tribe. Tribal design types may, 

 however, be identified by the frequency with which they are found. 

 The general tendency appears to be a borrowing from pictographic 

 designs of the eastern woodlands tribes, as the Chippewa, on the 

 part of the Plains tribes occupying adjoining areas, and from the 

 geometric basketry designs of the Southwestern tribes on the part 

 of the Ute and other plains-lil^e tribes of the plateau area. 



Tribes of the weaving area of Mexico^ Central and South Amer- 

 ica. — The Indians of Mexico have alwa3's been skillful weavers, and 

 it is known that in this region the art of weaving was quite ancient. 

 The Mexicans were proficient dyers and displayed considerable taste 

 and invention in the ornamentation of textiles. The loom is simple 

 and appears to be an aboriginal invention. 



The Maya-Quiche Indians of Guatemala and Yucatan, also of 

 Chiapas and a small portion of western Honduras, wove delicate 

 fabrics. Other Mexican Indian tribes represented in the Museum col- 

 lections of Mexican textiles are the Cora, Tarahumara, Huichol, 

 Aztec, and Chiapas. The serape blanket from Saltillo, Mexico, is 

 the outstanding textile garment from Mexico. There are several 

 scrapes exhibited that are beautifully woven in the subdued colors 

 possible only through aging and the use of native dyes. The art of 

 the Mexican serape weaver surpasses that of the Navaho blanket 

 weaver at her best. Two of the excellent specimens of Mexican 

 scrapes are to be seen in Plate 30, which were made in Saltillo, 

 Mexico, before the use of modern aniline dyes prevailed. One (Cat. 



