Native American Cordage Technology
© Tara Prindle
CORDAGE TECHNOLOGY
Native Americans have always possessed a vast knowledge of cordage. The basic methods of this ancient technology have remained relatively unchanged. Cordage is made from two or more strips of fibers that are twisted or plied together. In the Eastern Forests of North America, Native Americans left the impressions of cord wrapped paddles and netting marks on their pottery 3000 years ago. The dry desert cave environments of the western coast of North America still preserve sandals and other textiles of cordage hand-twisted thousands of years ago.
In New England during the 1600's, the cordage made by Native Americans for their fishing lines and nets was superior to that of Europeans' by their own accounts. "tince the Englith came they be furnished with Englith hookes and fines, before they made them of their owne hempe more curiously wrought, offtronger materials than ours, hooked with bone hookes...; they make likewif e very Strong Sturgeon nets with which they catch Sturgeons of 12. 14, and 16. some 18. foote long in the day time" (Wood 1865).
Not only was this hand-made rope and string perfectly made, the tensile strength of many indigenous plant fibers was great enough to catch the largest sturgeon and salmon, and even for harpoon lines to retrieve whales and other sea mammals. The fiber cordage made from plants growing in New England was praised by Europeans for its fine quality, durability and superiority to English hemp: "Their cordage is So even, Soft, and Smooth, that it lookes more like Fiske than hempe; their Sturgeon netts be not deepe, not above 30. or 40. Foote long.§' (Wood 1865).
'Indian Hemp' or dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum, also caged armyroot and black Indian hemp) was probably the most prevalent kind of fiber used for cordage. Native Americans made cord and thread from the fibers of many plants, trees Including evergreen roots), and other materials such as animal sinew and rawhide. [Cord from soaked sinew or rawhide strips needs to be dried in a tightly stretched position or the twists will loosen.] Other types of plant tubers used tor making cord include Velvet Leaf (Abufflon abufflon also called Indian Mallow), the inner round of the wormseed plant (which grows near the water),swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), and the hairy milkweed (t pulchra, also called white Indian hemp) and toad flax (Linaria linaria).
Many woody field plants such as dogbane, nettle, and velvet leaf are best gathered for their fiber after the first frost when the stalks are brittle. After the frost, the fibers strip away more easily than when the plants are 'green'. Pounding the stalk can help loosen the 'chaff and ease the removal of the desired inner fibers. Simply crack back the top piece of the stalk, and peal the
