The historical record shows extensive plant-based textile use among Eastern Woodlands Peoples for thousands of years. And while educational outlets, experts and traditionalists have known this truth for generations now, it continues to filter far too slowly to the masses… still far short of being a part of the collective knowledge of North Americans (from all backgrounds). And not knowing or accepting this fact is not an inconsequential oversight… On the contrary, the ignorance of Indigenous textile production aids in the continued trivializing of Native technologies, and by extension the devaluing of Native Peoples, legitimizing unfounded settler narratives often dismissive of Native Peoples’ strong ties to their lands (lands that produced fibers through means of stationary flora).
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Above: A plain-twined upper garment featuring strip of oblique twining (fingerweaving) detail near the bottom edge. This garment part of a commission for an Indiana heritage site and museum.
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Above: A nettle fiber twined skirt in the making.
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About the Textiles Pictured Here
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All textiles pictured here were created by Jessica Diemer-Eaton. Jessica bases her pre-Columbian textile reproductions and representations on a variety of sources, including archaeological evidence from: Woodland-period camp and cave sites in TN, MO, KY, and Hopewell sites in Ohio, and from multiple Mississippian sites including Cahokia (IL), Spiro (OK), Etowah (GA), Angel (IN), and Wickliffe (KY)... As well as: Early contact artifacts from northern Iroquoian-speaking Peoples, early historical accounts from Muscogee-speaking Peoples in the Southeast, pre- and post- historic artifacts of Algonquian-speaking Peoples along the Atlantic coast (VA, MA, ME, Nova Scotia), and continued fiber traditions among the Western Great Lakes Peoples (Algonquian and Siouan-speaking communities).
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Above: Nettle fiber (alternate-pair) twined flat bags, inspired by a preColumbian flat bag from a Tennessee cave.
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Above: Two hemp twined upper garments whose twine structures (plain, alternate-pair, and interlaced) are based on Mississippian twining structures.
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Above: A panel bag in the Western Great Lakes tradition. The center panel design of this nettle and bison wool fiber bag created by a double-faced crossed-warp twining structures.
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Above: Apron-style nettle-fiber breechclouts created with a combination of double-faced cross-warped and alternate-pair twining structures.
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Twining Structures
Jessica twines several different style of open-twine structures including plain, alternate-pair, diverted warp, transposed crossed diverted warps, transposed interlinked warps, and double-faced crossed-warps. The following are pictures of her work based on preColumbian and post Historic examples/evidence...
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Above: Plain twined bag with grouped wefts.
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Above: A plain twined bag in the making (upside down), with the start of a weft-faced twined rim made for lacing a string through to close the bag.
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Above: Plain twining with diverting warps, creating a diamond pattern.
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Above: Alternate-pair twining, somewhat translucent, before being dyed... Below: Same alternate-pair twined hemp garment, now opaque after being soaked, dyed and dried.
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Above: Alternate-pair twining with group wefts.
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Transposed Interlinked Twining
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Above: Plain twined garment featuring a design created by transposed interlinked warps.
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Above: Plain twined bag with diamond design created by transposed cross-diverted warps. Below: Cross-divered warps create the mesh body of this corn hulling/washing bag.
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Oblique Interlaced Twining
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Above: Plain twined garment with oblique interlaced twined border.
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Double-Faced Cross-Warp Twining
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Above Left: Double-faced cross-warped and alternate-pair twining. Above Right: Double-faced cross-warped twining structure.
Below: Double-faced cross-warped shoulder strap.
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Edge Structures
The edge structures Jessica recreates includes looped or “gathered” starting edges, loose edges (fringe), terminal and side edges/hems secured by turning back the wefts, gathered and braided warps (particularly for bag rims), and twisted-looped terminal edges (particularly used for lacing bags shut at the opening, to secure contents) - all based on preColumbian textile evidence.
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Left: A braided terminal edge creates this bag rim. Right: Wefts are turned in and secured by twisted warps to create this egde.
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Above: An oblique interlinked strap turning into transposed interlinked and plain twining in the body of the garment. The tops of the straps are linked together with a laced seam.
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Click the Bar Below to Learn About Traditional Great Lakes-Style Twined Bags
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Above: Resist dye design on an alternate-pair twined top, inspired by a Spiro (Mississippian) textile... This garment commissioned for a Mississippian exhibit in 2020.
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The Source of Fibers
Pre-Columbian textiles of Eastern North America were often made of the inner bark layers of plants and trees. The bark fibers from pawpaw and mulberry species were used for the making of garments, particularly in the Southeast and Midwest. In the Northern Woodlands, it was the soft fibers from the bark of basswood trees that was targeted most. Elm, cedar, poplar, and even hickory yield workable fibers for cordage, and the bark of cedar was (and still is) used in making pouches and mats around the Great Lakes region.
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Although many early accounts refer to Native craftspeople as utilizing “wild hemp,” the fiber used was not from Old World hemp but of native species of nettles, milkweed, and dogbane. It was the stalk of these plants, and specifically the bark layer, that yielded long fibers. If the outer bark was fully discarded, plants like milkweed naturally produced light white threads. When processed the fibers of these plants were light and soft, suitable to make clothing from. And where it was native in the Southeast, yucca (including “bear-grass”) was also utilized for the strings that could be obtained by the leaf of the plant. It should also be noted that at least some textiles worn in the Southeastern Woodlands, in the late pre-contact era, would have been made of (or contain some percentage of) New World cotton – such a resource likely filtering in from trade routes coming out of the Southwest.
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Jessica processes milkweed and dogbane stalks for fibers, and has made textiles with nettle fibers, harvested and spun overseas. Alternatively, she does use unwaxed hemp to twine bags or fingerweave straps as well. She often rets her own poplar bark fibers, but with no local source of basswood locally, she uses basswood harvested by others to make some of her bags.
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Jessica also creates bags, nets, straps, and cordage from artificial bark fibers… this faux material is a great alternative when obtaining real bark fibers is not feasible, especially for certain exhibit instillations. Using dye, she makes colored fibers for bag making, or mimics the bark fibers’ natural variation or aging in the faux materials. Pictured to the above left are a couple storage bags twined with artificial bark, and below is a fish net, tumpline, and yards of cordage (for an indoor wigwam exhibit) all made by Jessica using artificial bark material.
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Some Recommended Resources on Pre-Contact North American Textiles
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Further Reading:
- Mississippian Village Textiles at Wickliffe. By Penelope Ballard Drooker
- Prehistoric Plies: A Structural and Comparative Analysis of Cordage, Netting, Basketry, and Fabric from Ozark Bluff Shelters. By Sandra Clements Scholtz.
- Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States by William Henry Holmes
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Some Pre-Columbian Textile Artifacts to View Online:
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Twined Seed Pouch from Arkansas
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Pre-Columbian Textile Remnants can be Seen on Display at Cahokia Mounds SHS in Illinois, and at Etowah Mounds in Georgia, among other museums and visitors centers.
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To cite the information from this page:
Diemer-Eaton, Jessica. (2019, March). Pre-Columbian Textiles and Fiber Arts. Retrieved from http://www.woodlandindianedu.com/textileandfiberarts.html
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About the writer/weaver:
Jessica Diemer-Eaton has been twining bags and garments since 2005... a skill that she found interest in while working as a historical interpreter. Most of her twining has been self-taught - picked up through research on the subject (reproducing the structures of twining patterns found on post-historical bags, pre-contact garment remnants, and textile imprints on pre-Columbian pottery). In turn she shares what she knows (and sources) on this page to keep the information as accessible as possible. She makes twined textiles for individuals and museums.
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Please Note: If you are interested in owning and collecting Native art, we (WIEP) encourage you to do so... to support Indigenous artisans by purchasing pieces created by enrolled tribal members. However the textiles pictured here are not Native American-made art... As we like to say, this is just Jessica-made textiles, made for the purpose of public education and traditional use among community memebers.
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Above: Jessica holds a hemp skirt she twined based on a surviving preColumbian example, commissioned by a Tennessee State Archaeological park.
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