Corn Dance in Santa Clara, 1950

Two dancers leave the northern kiva to enter the plaza of Santa Clara, one of the tewa pueblos.

They participate in the Corn Dance; the woman wears the typical tablet headdress and a wool cloak with an interwoven wool and cotton belt and high moccasins.

Her arms are adorned with turquoise and silver bracelets and she wears a turquoise and coral necklace around her neck.

They both hold fir springs.

The man has painted his body with white and black and wears a seashell and coral necklace, a cotton dance skirt with woolen embroidery, a beautiful cotton belt and a leather belt with bells.

The anklets are made with skunk fur and are sewn to white moccasins; he has a fox tail hanging behind him.

Eskimos of St. Lawrence Island, 1930.

A man and his wife arrange the structure of a small umiak before draping it with a walrus pelt.

The man has his hair cut in a typical Siberian and St. Lawrence Island haircut and wears earrings and charms on the his necklace.

His parka is made of tanned caribou leather dyed red, with a crew neck made of dog skin.

His trousers are made of sealskin, with the fur facing outwards, whereas his boots are constructed using thin leather and fur strips.

The woman’s face and arms are tattooed and she wears a bracelet-shaped amulet.

Her parka, made of dark newborn caribou leather, is sewn with one arm free to enable her to work. It has white caribou leather trimmings and a fringe made of the skin of the white Siberian dog.

Her boots are made of sealskin dyed red, with the fur facing outwards.

A Mayan woman weaves blankets, serapes and bands with wool rolled by hand on the horizontal loom.

The larger mats were used as beds, but also acted as walls; small strips of bamboo were braided in making small baskets.  

A magnificent silver and turquoise Navajo necklace, datable to circa 1910.

It’s a “zucchini flower” necklace – typical of that period.

The manufacturing technique of the silver was learned from the Spanish; then the Navajo matched commercial silver to the semi-precious turquoise which was easily found in their traditional territory  – Arizona and New Mexico.

A pair of men’s moccasins decorated with beads, found in 1891 amoung the southern Cheyenne.

They have a rigid sole and are made of soft deer leather, coloured with a dye made of yellow earth.

This model reflects the characteristic style of many beaded Cheyenne artifacts, in that the decorative motifs are often in the form of coloured parallel stripes or concentric circles, as in this instance.

The use of red beads, combined with white and blue ones, was very widespread amoung the Cheyenne in the last quarter of the previous century.

Tillamook women of northwestern Oregon.

In the early XIX century the Tillamook were an important tribe who spoke the Salishan tongue, living in eight villages, with a population of approximately 2,200 people.

Around 1850 they were reduced to approximately 300.

The Navajo are native to North America, Canada and Alaska.

A nomad people, they subsisted on agriculture and breeding.

They devoted themselves to craftsmanship, weaving and silver workmanship, in which they showed a particular aptitude.

In the Navajo universe there are two classes:

the Earth people (human beings)

the Holy people (spiritual beings)

They must live in equilibrium with rules which must be respected.

In this way there will be salvation, abundance and the world will be harmonious and beautiful.

Navajo woman and child.

The name “Na-va-jo” derives from Tewa, a language spoken over a large area of cultivated land.

The Navajo spoke Athabasca and the Spaniards called them “Apaches de Navajo”.

The woman in the photograph wears silver and turquoise jewelry, characteristic of the tribe at the end of the last century.

Morningstar motif on a Crow halter, datable about 1880.

Like the Maltese cross motifs, these were very popular amongst the Crow, Cheyenne and Arapaho, insofar as they were considered symbols of the protective power.

The live in a region of extensive woods, with many rivers and natural ports on the coastline.

Thanks to the really cold winters, they cultivate only tobacco.

Their subsistence was especially based on the yearly cycle of hunting and fishing. In the winter months, the main activity was hunting beavers, moose, caribou and bears.

The end of April began the season of fishing for herring, sturgeon and salmon, together with hunting for Canadian geese.

From May to September, there was an abundance of food from cod, numerous fish and mollusks.