After discussing the origins and uses of cotton plants, I thought it would be interesting to explore some additional native plants used by indigenous people for textiles and purposes besides food and medicine.
Native plants
A few such regional plants Native American tribes utilized for fibers and other purposes include milkweeds, sagebrush, thistles, sunflowers and devil’s claw. Yucca plants and grasses were also used for clothing manufacture and other industry.
Cattail plants provided materials for these endeavors, and trees, such as cedars, juniper, elm, mulberry, willows, cottonwood, poplar and birch were sought for similar purposes and, in some cases, for their waterproofing and insulating qualities.
Sustainable practices
My preconceived, overly simplistic ideas or outright ignorance concerning the cultures and practices of Native American tribes on the Plains and other indigenous, pre-Columbian tribes inhabiting our region originally led me to believe that most clothing and other items utilized by these indigenous people were obtained almost exclusively from animal hides and other parts of bison, deer, elk, bear, coyotes, foxes, wolves, mink, muskrat, beaver, rabbits, various birds and other animal species.
However, Native Americans wove textiles and constructed many useful objects from a great variety of plants and plant materials. These practices were carried out in a sustainable manner and, as a basis for their manufacturing pursuits, the plant materials no doubt proved to be more common, obtainable, reliable and long-term sources than many of the aforementioned animals.
Turning native plants into textiles
Although perhaps more reliable and abundant, the majority of native plants used for clothing and other goods also have to be processed beforehand. Depending upon the utilized plant parts, processing procedures were often somewhat time consuming and labor intensive.
Useful plant materials vary according to species and application, but examples include plant leaves, stems and fruits for textiles and associated products. But the roots of many plants, such as Osage orange, dandelion, dock, wild carrot, madders and sumac, provided natural dyes used upon the resulting clothing and objects.
How they did it
A few of the common fiber processing steps associated with these plants included retting, scutching, splitting, stripping, washing, combing and drying.
Some of the most useful plant fibers are found in stems and bark and are referred to as “bast” fibers. The stems and bark of cottonwood, hackberry, cedar, junipers, sunflowers, nettles, milkweeds and many other native plants contain bast fibers.
The first step employed in fiber extraction is to harvest sections of bark and cut stem sections and place them in water for a few days to begin retting. Retting the stems and bark slightly decomposes tissues surrounding the fibers and allows for easier separation of the fibers from surrounding, nonuseful tissues.
After retting, the plant materials are removed from water and “scutched” — beaten, scraped or broken — to further separate fibers from other tissues and plant pulp. After scutching, the fibers may be stripped from surrounding bark, stem or leaf tissues.
The scutching, scraping and stripping steps are often quite time consuming and labor intensive. Next, to straighten them, the extracted fibers are often washed and combed.
Depending upon the types of fibers and anticipated uses, the cleaned, straight fibers are sometimes used in their “green” state.
But other fibers are allowed to dry to reduce shrinkage before use in textile manufacture, basket and container weaving, furniture construction and other projects. Dried fibers are often briefly soaked in water to increase their pliability before being used in final projects.
Braiding and weaving
The leaves and stems of other plants also provide suitable material for braiding into three-dimensional shapes to create cords, ropes, nets and bulky mats and weaving to create flat textiles and cloth. But they often require less preparation than the aforementioned plants.
A few examples of such native plants include cattails, sedges, willows, greenbrier, bear-grass (Nolina sp.) and other tallgrass species. Yuccas, agave and sotol provide useful fibers that may be directly stripped from the leaves or retted or pounded loose.
The water-resistant properties of cedar made it suitable for manufacturing head covers, whereas, cattail and sedge leaves and stems were often plaited and woven into mats. Bear-grass and other tall grasses were utilized for breechclouts, skirts and other clothing, and greenbrier vines were often cut, dried and woven into baskets.
Cattail and sedge leaves provided materials for netting, and willow twigs were formed and/or woven into durable furniture items.
I was acquainted with someone from Nuevo Laredo who regularly harvested stalks of giant reed (Arundo donax) along the Rio Grande, split the stalks lengthwise and wove the green strips into beautiful baskets and clothes hampers. The individual also made woven lids or covers for the hampers. After the green basketry dried, the items became very durable, strong, and tight.
Putting flowers, fruit to use
The flowers and fruits of many native plants were also put to other uses besides food.
Showy petals and other floral structures were often incorporated into clothing or used in special garments and ceremonies. The downy, achene seed heads of thistles and milkweeds were used as filler and insulating material for shoes and other items, and the ripe seed heads of cattails were used in clothing, bedding and as fire tinder.
A surprising example of alternate use has been devil’s claw fruits woven into basketry by several southwestern and Californian Native American tribes.
Waste not
Regarding regional plants, most indigenous peoples and early settlers definitely had a waste-not-want-not attitude and utilized almost every part of many native plants for food, medicine, cloth, clothing, basketry and other objects.
We would be wise to consider, or reconsider, such practices in our current world!
Jim Goetze is a retired professor of biology and former chairperson of the Natural Sciences Department of Laredo College with an avid interest in all aspects of the natural world. He can be contacted at gonorthtxnature@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Baskets, ropes and ropas, the other uses for native plants | Opinion
Reporting by Jim Goetze, San Angelo Standard-Times / San Angelo Standard-Times
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