5 Tools and Weapons of the Southwest

The most important tool in the Southwest could not be held in the hand. In the desert, the thing people needed most was water.

The Hohokam people solved this problem nearly 2,500 years ago. The Hohokam were experts at water management. This was necessary to survive the dry Arizona climate. Every drop of water counted. Their solution was irrigation. Irrigation is a way to bring water to farmland through a series of channels. The Hohokam people dug wide, shallow irrigation canals from the Salt and Gila Rivers. Their oldest surviving canal was dug in 300 B.C. and is three miles long. Some canals were three times that size. Water flowed through them to the farmland. The Hohokam grew corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and cotton.

To support their canals, the Hohokam built dams on the Gila and Salt Rivers. These dams were a row of posts stuck into the riverbed. Between the posts, the Hohokam set woven mats. The mats blocked the water, making the river level rise. This meant that more water would flow into the canals. They could add or remove mats as necessary.

The Hohokam settled in Snaketown, near where Phoenix is today. Snaketown was abandoned in the early 16th century. No one knows for sure what happened to the Hohokam. They may be the ancestors of the modern-day Pima and Papago Indians, who inherited their system of irrigation canals.

Apache boys ran for miles with a mouthful of water, only to spit it out at the end. This showed that despite the heat and exertion, they did not need to drink the water.

Farther west, in California, natives were using decoys to attract ducks by 2500 B.C. They would make a frame out of tule reeds and cover it with strips of yucca. It would be decorated with paint and feathers. A hunter would wait in the reeds near the decoy. He would make tiny splashes in the water. It would sound like a duck was feeding there. When a real duck came, the hunter would leap out and grab it.

As time went on, new tribes migrated into the Southwest. The Apache lived as nomadic hunters. They used lances and bows made of willow branches. Their arrows were made from reeds with flint arrowheads. They also used war clubs and slings. Boys mostly used slings, since they were not strong enough to kill. Young Apaches trained with arrows. They practiced shooting, as well as dodging, them.

Most Apache battles were surprise attacks. This was not unusual among Southwestern tribes. Pueblo warriors would strike with surprise at dawn, then retreat quickly. They were outfitted with arrows, clubs, stone knives, and a bag of roasted cornmeal for trail food. Natives of southern California used daggers made from elk antlers. They had no edge to them, just a point at the tip. A leather strap was attached that could be wrapped around the wrist.

A Native American in California created this basket from willow leaves woven together.

Unlike the Apache, the Navajo took up the agricultural life of the neighboring Pueblos. They learned farming and weaving from the Pueblos in the 1600s. Only Southwestern Indians had true weaving looms. In every other region of North America, people were using finger weaving, knitting, and crocheting. Eventually, the Navajo became better weavers than their teachers. When Europeans brought sheep to America, Navajos began raising them for wool.

Natives of the region made cradleboards from wood and plant fibers. These were baby carriers worn on the parent’s back. The baby’s mother and grandmother usually covered them in decorations. Cradleboards were used throughout North America.

The Plano people had a tool for grinding seeds, a variation of which was used throughout the continent. The seeds were laid on a stone slab called a metate. A woman ground the seeds with a round stone known as a mano.

One of the most useful Native American crafts was pottery. Aside from those living in the Northwest, almost every native tribe made pottery. Pottery was used in cooking, storage, and even transportation. The people of the Southwest and Southeast are considered some of the best potters.

There is a long tradition of pottery in the Southwest. The Mogollon people of New Mexico made excellent pottery. They were careful, dedicated painters. One surviving Mogollon bowl has 27 parallel lines painted around it in a two-inch band.

There were two ways of shaping clay for pottery. Native Americans did not have potter’s wheels. Like baskets, clay could be coiled and shaped. After the coils had been built into the right shape, the clay would be smoothed out.

The other method was to use a mold. In this case, a potter pressed clay up against a wooden mold, smoothing it out as she went. When the pot was finished, she removed the mold. The clay would keep its shape.

Most clay pots were dried by fire. The pots were placed above a fire. Above them was another, finished clay vessel. Inside it would be burning animal dung, which heated the top of the pot. When the firing was finished, the pots were left to cool. Eventually, they were decorated with designs of rabbits, turtles, and bears.

TANNING HIDES

Animal hides were important to Native Americans. In various regions, leather and rawhide provided clothing, shelter, tools, and transportation. Tanning is the process used to make animal flesh into a useful hide.

The most common method of tanning was brain tanning. To start, fresh hides were soaked in water. This was followed by a mixture of animal brains, liver, bark, and sour milk. After steeping in the mix, the hides would be wrung out and stretched over a frame to dry. This process made the hides soft and pliable. Next, hair would be scraped off the hides. The hides would be soaked in water regularly during the scraping, which kept them soft.

Drying was the final stage of tanning. It gave the leather color. Brown leather was dried over a fire of young, green willows. For yellow leather, the hides were dried over a dry willow fire. White leather was dried with no fire at all.

Hides that had the flesh and hair removed, but weren’t tanned into leather, were called rawhide. Unlike leather, it was hard, sturdy stuff. It was used for shields and sometimes armor.

The Native Americans of the Southwest produced beautiful pottery, like this finely decorated Hopi bowl.

Since much of the Southwest was desert, there was not much need for boats. The Mohave used them only rarely. They swam across rivers, keeping their children afloat in clay pots. The Cocopa used these pots, too, calling them ollas. Since they lived on the banks of the Sea of California, they also used dugouts made of cottonwood.

Some California tribes, such as the Pomo Indians, used rafts made of tule reeds tied together. After a few hours of use, the rafts would become waterlogged and begin to sink. The warm California air dried the soggy rafts quickly, but they were not the most efficient form of boat.

The Chumash Indians of southern California used plank boats. These boats were made of hand-split planks, tied together with leather or fiber. The seams of the boat were sealed with asphalt to keep them waterproof. To this day, no complete Chumash plank boat has ever been found. §

A Mayan woman grinds corn as her people have done for centuries. Before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the Maya created a highly advanced culture in what is today Guatemala, Honduras, and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.