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Pre-Columbian fabric, while it was made by Native Americans, is difficult to find in some areas. Because of weather conditions, it deteriorated rapidly. In temperate climates, charred cloth, cloth impression on ceramics (accidental and deliberate), and cloth in contact with copper objects have been the only evidences of textile manufacture found in archeological digs. In contrast, early fabric has been found in graves in the extremely arid coastal deserts of western South America.
A variety of materials were used by Native Americans to produce their fabric. The fibers of Indian hemp and dogbane (both Apocynum), milkweed (Asclepias), moosewood (Dirca), nettle (Urtica), as well as shredded cedar (Juniperus), basswood (Tilia) and mulberry (Morus) barks, milkweed down and down feathers of birds were used in North American cloth manufacture. Often fibers from two or more sources might be combined and there is evidence of trade in raw materials along the eastern seaboard and elsewhere. Cotton was grown in the American southwest, in Mesoamerica and in South America. Fibers from the leaves of Spanish-bayonet (Yucca) and of maguey (Agave) were used to make coarser fabrics in Mexico.
Hair and sinew "thread" were frequently used in cloth manufacture. Mountain goat fur and dog hair were utilized to weave Chilkat blankets along the Pacific northwest coast. Bison hair was braided to make some Plains items. After the introduction of sheep, wool became popular, particularly in the southwestern United States. Rabbit fur was common in early Mexican cloth. The hair of llamas (Fig. 1), guanacos and vicunas was and is used today in Andean fabrics, that of the vicuna being especially soft and, therefore, prized.
While cotton and wool fibers can be teased or combed to straighten them out and many Indian weavers now use carding combs (similar to wire brushes) for this purpose, the straightening can be, and was, done by hand, removing seeds, dirt and foreign matter in the process. In eastern North America, threads and yarn were usually spun by twisting fibers between the palm of the hand and the thigh. Aztec and southwestern (notably Hopi) weavers put completed yarn on a "whorl spindle," (a long rod with a small circular flywheel-the whorl). To spin, the person rolled the rod with yarn attached on the thigh, wrapping...