2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 60 



of the villages of the cliff-dwellers, those wonderful relics in the Mesa 

 Verde National Park which were in ruins when first seen by the 

 white man. 



The Swedish explorer, G. Nordenskiold, 1 and Dr. J. Walter 

 Fewkes, 2 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, both report finding 

 fragments of cotton cloth as fairly common in most of the cliff-dwell- 

 ings. Nordenskiold says : 



Cotton was used by the cliff-dwellers as the raw material of superior 

 textile fabrics. Numerous fragments of cotton cloth have been found. The 

 cotton shrub was probably cultivated by the cliff people, at least in some 

 localities, for in the cliff-dwellings of southern Utah, the seeds of this shrub 

 have been observed. On the Mesa Verde no such find has been made. 



Dr. Fewkes reports finding cotton cloth in the ruins at Casa Grande 

 in southern Arizona 3 and in the cliff villages of the Red Rock country 

 in the Rio Verde Valley of Arizona. 4 The ruins of the latter region 

 closely resemble those of Tusayan, the limited area now inhabited 

 by the Hopi Indians, and seem to support the claim of the Hopi that 

 some of their ancestors formerly lived in that region. Dr. Fewkes 

 says of these finds : 



Fabrics made of cotton are common in the ruins of the Red-rocks, and at 

 times this fiber was combined with yucca. Some of the specimens of cotton 

 cloth were finely woven and are still quite strong, although stained dark or 

 almost black. Specimens of netting are also common, and an open-mesh 

 legging, similar to the kind manufactured in ancient times by the Hopi and 

 still worn by certain personators in their sacred dances, were taken from the 

 western room of Honanki. There were also many fragments of rope, string, 

 cord, and loosely twisted bands, resembling head bands for carrying burdens. 

 A reed in which was inserted a fragment of cotton fiber was unlike anything 

 yet reported from cliff houses, and as the end of the cotton which projected 

 beyond the cavity of the reed was charred, it possibly was used as a slow- 

 match or tinder box. 4 



REFERENCES TO COTTON BY THE FIRST SPANISH EXPLORERS 



Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was appointed governor of the 

 province of New Galicia in April, 1539, by the good viceroy of Mexico, 

 Antonio de Mendoza. A few months later he was sent on an expe- 

 dition to explore the country north of Mexico and verify the reports 

 of the great riches of the region which had been brought back by 



1 Nordenskiold, G. : The Cliff-Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, 1893, pp. 94, 104. 



2 Fewkes, J. Walter: Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Bull. 41, 1909, pp. 43, 45, fig. 17; 

 Bull. 51, 191 1, p. 76. 



3 28th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. (in press, 1912). 

 4 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1898, p. 573. 



