Native American Finger Weaving
© Tara Prindle
Native American Finger Weaving in the Eastern Forests By Tara Prindle
Native Americans have developed unique techniques for weaving, an art with ancient origins. Finger weaving is a technique which evolved in many parts of the world, cultivated into a fine art by Native Americans. Native Americans of the eastern forests are well known for their finger woven yarn belts and sashes. Archaeological remains of pottery in the Northeast show where woven textiles were pressed into the clay some 3000 years ago. The constant wet environment of peat bogs in Florida have produced a piece of finger weaving 6,000 to 8,000 years old. Dry desert cave atmospheres of Arizona have preserved prehistoric finger woven examples of spun dog hair. South American Peruvians do finger weaving using a slightly different technique called Rep braiding. Other varieties of finger weaving are produced in European countries.
In northeastern North America, there is little pre-contact evidence that sophisticated looms were used. For bags and mats the simple suspension loom was used (where warp strands hang suspended with only one end secured). After contact with Europeans, Native Americans used a bow loom extensively in making wampum belts (where warp strings are stretched and fastened to either end of a bowed stick), but use of the loom was never as prevalent as in the western part of North America. Advancement of weaving beyond hand-held forms probably did not occur, at least with northern New England tribes such as the Penobscot, because birchbark was readily available and used to construct numerous kinds of containers and coverings.
A long tradition of finger weaving is obvious from the intricate examples which have survived from the time of European contact. Finger weaving techniques produced tumplines (burden straps for cradleboards, packs or other loads) and drag straps for sleds or toboggans, belts, sashes, garters or similar items of clothing, and even small bags. A 1672 comment in "New England Rarities" by Josselyn, an early European voyager, notes a burden strap used for a cradleboard: "...then putting the strap of leather upon their forehead with the infant hanging at their back home they trudge." Finger woven items measured from a few inches to more than five yards long.
Traditionally pre-contact materials for finger weaving included the inner bark of basswood, cedar and slippery elm trees, dogbane (Indian hemp) and milkweed fibers, nettle, wormseed and other plant fibers, as well as strips of moose hide. All woven the same way in different degrees of fineness depending on the intended function and the
