NO. O COTTON OF THE HOPI INDIANS LEWTON 3 



Padre Marcos de Niza and Melchior Diaz. Coronado's expedition 

 resulted in the discovery of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and 

 Arizona, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and the bison of the plains. 

 Pedro Castenada de Najera, the historian of the Coronado expedition, 

 mentions the Pueblo Indians as wearing cotton blankets and giving 

 them presents of cotton cloth. 1 



In Coronado's letter to Mendoza, dated August 3, 1540, and in 

 other papers of the Coronado expedition there is mention of cotton 

 raising by the natives of the region 2 extending from the present 

 southern to the northern boundaries of Arizona and eastward to the 

 Rio Grande. 



EVIDENCES OF FORMER CULTIVATION BY THE HOPI INDIANS 

 In 1895 Dr. J. Walter Fewkes made explorations in Awatobi, an 

 historic Hopi ruin which was destroyed in 1700, and reports finding 

 evidence of the use of cotton by the inhabitants. 



In the very earliest accounts which we have of Tusayan, the Hopi arc said 

 to raise cotton and to weave it into mantles. These mantles, or " towels " as 

 they were styled by Espejo, were, according to Castenada, ornamented with 

 embroidery, and had tassels at the corners 



The historical references which can be mentioned to prove that the Tusayan 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 slated 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. 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. 3 



Later, Dr. Walter Hough, of the U. S. National Museum, in making 

 excavations in the large ruin of Kawaiokuh, near the Keam's Canyon 

 road, found offerings of cotton and other seeds accompanying burials. 

 The cotton seed resembled that still raised by the Hopi Indians of 

 Oraibi village at Moenkopi. 4 



Lieut. Joseph C. Ives explored in 1858 the Colorado River and the 

 country occupied by the Hopi (Moqui) Indians. At the Pueblo ol 

 Tegua, east of Oraibi, May 17, 1858, he wrote as follows : 



The unpassable canons west of the territory of these Indians have thrown 

 them out of the line of travel and exploration, and there has been no record 



1 14th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1896, pp. 489, 517. 



2 14th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., [896, pp. 550, 560, 569, 571. ^7? 



3 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1898, p. 629. 

 'Ann. Rep. t'. S. Nat. Mus., tgox, pp. 341,345. 



