The Southwest Hudson Museum Virtual Tour Transcript
Introduction
[Light drumming]
Visual: The logo of the Hudson Museum followed by the dynamic entry of an image of a museum exhibit with the text “Native American Galleries Tour: The Southwest”. This then fades to a map showing major regions of North America.
Voice of Narrator: Geographically, the Southwest extends from northern Mexico
Visual: A more detailed map of the Southwest made from a satellite image with simple boundary and label overlay.
Narrator: to the present-day states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Texas.
Visual: Simple art on a rock wall depicting animals and a human with bow and arrow riding a horse.
Narrator: Some groups, like the Navajo and Apache, were hunters and gatherers
Visual: A close-up of corn in a field on a sunny day.
Narrator: while others, like the Pueblo peoples, practiced agriculture
Visual: The remains of simple buildings made of stacked rocks or bricks with wooden lintels.
Narrator: and lived in adobe mud brick apartment buildings. The word “pueblo” means “village” in Spanish. Some of the pueblos were built over 1,000 years ago and are still inhabited today.
Visual: A panning shot of beans growing on a vine fading to water running in a stream.
Narrator: The Pueblo people were sedentary agriculturalists growing corn, beans, and squash and irrigating their fields.
Visual: A false-color image of a group of people standing in front of a train. The men wear typical European dress, the women are dressed in colorful blankets and many carry ceramic jars on their heads.
Narrator: Since the 1880’s Southwestern Native American textiles, jewelry, baskets, pottery, kasinas, and fetishes made their way to Maine as souvenirs of visits to the Southwest. Some of the objects in the Museum’s collections were brought back by railroad employees and visitors or they were purchased through catalogs sent to the Northeast by Reservation traders. Others were bought as home decor during the Arts and Crafts movement of the early-1900’s.
Visual: A black and white photograph of a woman weaving outdoors. She sits on the ground with a child on her lap and works on a loom suspended between two small trees.
Narrator: Although this connection between Maine and the Southwest seems improbable, it’s not uncommon in Maine to encounter Southwestern Native American art in yard sales, antiques shops, and auctions.
Navajo Textiles
Visual: An image of a museum exhibit featuring a large blanket worn by a mannequin.
Narrator: It is said in Navajo culture that Spider Woman taught the Navajo how to weave. Prior to the Conquest, Southwestern textiles were made from cotton, but with the introduction of sheep to the New World the Navajo began to create blankets from wool – admired for the warmth, durability, and ability to shed water. Weavers found a ready market for textiles among those who opened the Southwest. With the establishment of trading posts, weavers were encouraged to produce textiles that could be marketed nationally and their weavings evolved to meet the demand of traders and markets.
Visual: A detailed image of the wearing blanket. It is made with wide white and black stripes overlaid with a diamond motif in red and deep blue, each containing an equal-armed cross.
Narrator: Here’s an example of an early Navajo blanket made from wool [of] churro sheep which was dyed with red cochineal dye – made from insect shells – and indigo.
Visual: A woven rug with a border of two red strips bracketing a strip of fine black and white lines. The central motif is red, black, and gray and features zig-zag patterns and equal-armed crosses.
Narrator: Over time, textiles that had been blankets transitioned to rugs by adding borders and heavier-weight yarns, and designs evolved from simple banded patterns
Visual: A rug with a simple cream border meeting the tan center with a zig-zag boundary. The central motifs in black and red include diamonds, arrows, and curls.
Narrator: to arrows, whirling logs, and designs similar to those found in Oriental rugs. Colors changed to meet the trends in home decor, with different [trading] posts establishing distinctive color palettes.
Jewelry
Visual: An image of a museum exhibit featuring an informational sign with the title “Turquoise and Silver” and with various decorative objects such as a silver and turquoise belt and bracelets and a necklace strung with stacked thin, flat, circular beads of tan and turquoise.
Narrator: Prior to Contact, Southwestern jewelry featured turquoise, coral, and shell beads with stones and shells being traded over vast distances from South America to California. Prior to Contact, stone tools were used to make shell beads called “heishi”, the Santo Domingo word for “shell”. In the 1850’s the Navajo learned the art of working silver from Mexican silversmiths and then passed the tradition along to the Zuni and, in turn, the Hopi.
Visual: A detail image of a necklace made of large elements linked together, each in the form of silver leaves surrounding a central turquoise stone. At the base of the necklace a series of these elements forms an upside-down crescent shape.
Narrator: By the early 1900’s a distinctive style of Southwestern jewelry had emerged which was characterized by rings, bracelets, and necklaces that featured silver, often with stamped designs and inset turquoise, coral, or elaborate inlay work.
Visual: A necklace in the museum exhibit – strung with circular silver beads interspersed with “blossom” shaped elements and a central ornament of silver in a downward crescent cradling a large, drop-shaped turquoise bead.
Narrator: Perhaps the most characteristic piece of Southwestern jewelry is the Navajo squash blossom necklace. The necklace consists of a central “naja” or crescent design, adopted from Mexican horse bridle ornaments, and silver beads interspersed with squash blossoms that have a pomegranate shape.
Pottery
Visual: A museum exhibit featuring four large ceramic pots. One is cream-colored with decorative elements in red and black, the other three are bright white with detailed designs also in black and red. The image then shifts of close-up views of first the tan vessel, then the three white pots, before returning to the original view.
Narrator: Around 100AD Southwestern peoples began to produce pottery. Although Pre-columbian cultures had made pottery for thousands of years, and trade between the Southwest and Mesoamerica can be traced back in time, it was not until the cultures of the Southwest began to practice agriculture that pottery had utility. Pottery served as storage vessels for water and seeds. Each pueblo had unique clay sources and distinctive decorative techniques and design motifs.
Visual: A different museum exhibit, this one featuring a wider variety of pottery vessels, including a large, clearly repaired pot similar to those seen previously next to a squatter, clearly newer version. On a surface below these are a collection of small pots and figures with a shiny black finish – a larger version of these can be seen behind the two pots on the top deck – and a set of three new-looking ceramics with crisp, clear decorative elements.
Narrator: Southwestern pottery is not produced on a potter’s wheel. Rather, it is produced using a coiling technique, with each coil being smoothed together to create the smooth and seamless surface. The exterior of the pot may be polished or slipped with a clay wash. Designs may be painted on the pot with mineral pigment or carved or scratched into it. Pottery was traditionally fired in open-air kilns. Evidence of this technique can be seen in black fire clouds, black smudges on the exterior surface of the pottery where it came directly into contact with the fire’s fuel.
Baskets
Visual: An image of two wide, shallow baskets in a museum display.
Narrator: Cultures around the world manipulate plant fibers to create baskets to gather food and materials, to store items, and to prepare food. In the Southwest baskets are generally made with a coil technique. with either a 3-rod willow, 2-rod sumac, or bear grass foundation wrapped with yucca, willow shoots, or Devil’s Claw. Wicker techniques are also used among some of the groups, especially the Hopi, to create plaques.
Visual: A detail image of a bowl-shaped basked made with a narrow fiber wrapping wide coils. A pattern has been made using tan, black, orange, and red.
Narrator: Each tribe used specific materials and decorated their works with designs that had meaning within their own culture.
Visual: Two images in succession: A small bottle-shaped basket with a thick layer of reddish material encasing the weaving, followed by a detail image of one of the first baskets – a wide, shallow bowl with nested star- shaped motifs.
Narrator: Traditional forms include the pitch water jars of the Apache and the Wedding Basket of the Navajo.
Visual: Four images in rapid succession: A small, coiled, oval plaque with a central turtle motif in black followed by a slightly larger, circular plaque featuring a figure with a wide, wing-like headdress. These are followed by a small coiled basket with a flat cover and finally a small lidded basket made with coiled fibers decoratively stitched together at intervals.
Narrator: A wide variety of other forms were made to sell to tourists. Plaques featuring Hopi katsinas and turtles, as well as small trinket baskets with covers or lids were common basket forms made for sale.
Katsinas and Fetishes
Visual: A view of five katsinas in a museum exhibit with an associated label. The text of the label follows the video’s narration and is not included here.
Narrator: For the Hopi, katsinas are spirit beings. They can represent ancestors, elements, natural phenomena, and there are over 400 distinct forms. They’re not worshiped, but they’re viewed as powerful beings that are venerated and respected. If they’re treated properly they can use their powers for the good of the community, bringing rain, fertility, and protection. Contemporary katsinas are made for sale outside the community and represent masked dancers who impersonate the katsinas in ceremonies.
Visual: A very small carved turquoise in the form of a woman, simple face made of white shell with mouth open, wearing a necklace with central inlaid red element, and holding a small child on her lap.
Narrator: Among the Zuni, stone carvings of small animal figures, which serve as charms to protect their community, their livestock, their crops, and their own well-being, date back over 1500 years.
Visual: Two sequential images – A very tiny, orangish stone carved in the shape of a simple animal form. A small cord around its middle attaches a turquoise stone to its back, followed by a very tiny, carved deep green stone in the form of a detailed hooded snake, body coiled and front end reared up.
Narrator: The Zuni believe that all plants and animals have a spiritual nature and if a stone bears a resemblance to an animal, the spirit and powers of that animal reside in the object. To gain the benefits of these powers, Zuni fetishes were red, stored in a protected place, and given gifts of turquoise and coral. Today they are admired as an artform and are made for sale.
Visual: University of Maine logo.