Bandelier National Monument, New MexicoWing, Kittridge A.
History
Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico
Wing, Kittridge A.
Bandelier National Monument (N.M.)
The items of wearing apparel most important to the early people,
perhaps, were sandals. In the Southwest it is difficult, if not out of
the question, to go barefoot outdoors; even the toughened Indian feet
could not have been impervious to cactus spines. A great deal of time
and skill was expended, therefore, in the devising of footgear. From the
days of the Basketmakers, the sandal most in favor had been woven of
yucca, the plant with slender swordlike leaves sometimes known as
Spanish-bayonet. Yucca is to be found in one species or another
throughout the one-time land of the Pueblos. Such intensive use was made
of it by the early people that it is almost surprising that it could
have survived. As mentioned previously, yucca was the favorite fiber for
cordage, and essentially it was cordage which made up the best types of
sandals. A twilled weave of small-diameter cords was carefully shaped to
the foot, the edges were neatly bound, then lashings to tie around the
ankle and over the toes were made to finish the job. A sole of this sort
was durable and had remarkable nonskid qualities, as anyone who has worn
modern rope-soled shoes can testify. Cruder, more quickly made sandals
were plaited together from the unworked blades of the narrow-leaf yucca,
the resulting weave looking rather like modern palm-frond matting.
[Illustration: _Mule deer._]
RELIGION. It has been said that “Man cannot live by bread alone.”
Nowhere is the truth of this better illustrated than in the history of
the Pueblo Indian who, in spite of appalling difficulties to achieve the
physical sustenance of life, found much time to develop a spiritual
life. The principal evidences of a widespread ancient religion are, of
course, the remains of kivas, found in all the old communities. Although
details of the use of prehistoric kivas cannot be established, some
ideas of their use can be inferred from the part that kivas play in the
modern Pueblo religion. The kiva rituals practiced today are traditional
in the highest degree, and in all likelihood have descended in their
basic form from centuries-old origins.
Hence it is perhaps valid to assume that the following conditions
prevailed here at Bandelier 600 years ago: The principal social and
religious organization was a society or clan; each such organization had
its own kiva; and in their kiva the men of the group conducted
ceremonies to honor and propitiate many deities, which were personified
in birds and beasts, the elements, and natural forces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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