The copper plates found in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley sometimes contain impressions of cloth and other fabrics. There are occasionally bits of charred cloth, found in altars or ash-pits or between copper plates. Professors Holmes, Mills, Putnam, and others have described these in various reports.
An inspection of the material illustrated in this chapter will acquaint readers with the fact that the natives of Kentucky made use of various plants, the favorite of which is the ordinary flag, for the manufacture of baskets, sandals, etc.
In the Southwest, desert plants, such as the yucca, possessing elasticity and strength, were employed for a multitude of purposes.
Could we have preserved for our inspection the textile fabrics made use of in the Mississippi Valley, we doubtless should observe that primitive man in this great region employed utensils, garments, weapons, tools, and other things made of perishable material.
Fig. 625. (S. 1–4 to 1–5.) Sandals from Salts Cave, made of bark and wild hemp. Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.
Fig. 626. (S. about 1–3.) Andover collection. Three sandals and an unfinished object from Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Group, New Mexico. Found by W. K. Moorehead.
Fig. 627. (S. 2–5.) Moccasin worn through at toe and heel, from Salts Cave. Material, leaves of cat-tail. Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.