vacation tours pegleg or peralta? - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

their fabrics along with yarns of native
dye.
The best early reds were made by extracting
the bark of alder (Alnus obongifolia)
and mountain mahogany (Cercocarp
us montanus and C. breviflorus}
with boiling water until a dark red decoction
resulted. The liquid then was
strained and the yarns boiled in the solution
until the dye "took." The mordant
used for this color was fine juniper
ashes. According to one source the secret
of a fine permanent red of the henna
order was to add a certain rather rare
lichen (Parmelia mollinuscule*) to the
dye bath. In my experiments I tried several
different lichens since the one prescribed
was not available. My best results
were with a common species {Parmelia
conspera). The resulting color was, appropriately
enough, found to be called
Apache Brown in the color dictionary.
Mountain mahogany bark alone makes
a reddish shade called Castilian or Old
Cedar. The smooth slate colored quills
of dry bark are hardly what you'd expect
to use for a red dye, but once in
boiling water a subtle chemical begins
and the bath grows redder and redder
until finally it becomes almost black.
This gives a full, rich color on wool
but paler and pinker on cotton. To avoid
disappointment with this dye it is essential
to use clean water and dye-pots and
freshly washed yarn. The dyeing operation
can be carried out properly only in
pots free from iron. The merest trace
of iron dulls the color by making it
smoky.
The red dye of the Pimas was carmine
from the wild cochineal insect of southern
Arizona and California. Apparently
this dye was used only for decorating
woodwork, especially war arrows. Colonies
of the cochineal bug make their
homes in tufts of white, cottony down
on the pads of prickly-pear cactus. If
you pinch a wad of the white fluff you
will find the tips of your fingers stained
a brilliant carmine from the insect. Until
the discovery of aniline dyes, cochineal
was an important source of fast reds and
violets. Perhaps the complicated manipulations
necessary for success with this
dye were beyond the grasp of the more
primitive tribes of the Southwest.
But in Mexico at the time of the Conquest,
cochineal was extensively used
both for dyes and pigments. The pre-
28 / Desert Magazine / July, 1968
pared insect "nochiztli" formed part of
the tribute levied by Mexico upon some
of her neighbors. My own experiments
with the wild cochineal were only moderately
successful since the best colors
I could make were shades of pink and
old rose. The dye is worth experimenting
with if you live where the insect is
abundant.
Orange color is rare in woven Indian
textiles but not unusual in some Hopi
baskets. To make this color the Hopi
used the dry flowers of a plant called
"Ho-ho-it-si" (Thelesperma gracile),
first cousin to the coreopsis. The flowers
are boiled to make a strongly colored
dye and the splints boiled to the right
shade without the use of any mordant.
Alder. The bark boiled with that of
mountain mahogany made the fast
reddish browns found on old Navajo
blankets.
On cotton the color has to be set with
alum. The hue is a red-orange, fast to
light and fairly fast to water. In the
cases of this dye and the yellow dyes
which I will take up next, the coloring
principle itself belongs to an interesting
series of pigments called the anthoxanthins.
Some of these—quercitrin from
black-oak bark is one—are important
dyestuffs which long have been articles
of commerce.
In their pure condition the anthoxanthins
are only slightly soluble in water
but dissolve easily in dilute acid. All
plants contain some vegetable acid, so
when a decoction of ho-ho-it-si is boiled
there is enough acid naturally present to
dissolve the dyestuff. They also dissolve
in alkaline solutions to make shades of
yellow-orange and easily form insoluable
compounds with mordants such as alum.
The Hopi have another dye called
c'vapsi. This is made from the dry flowers
of the rabbitbrush {Chrysothamnus
nauseosus). The flowers, carefully separated
from any green foliage, dye a
beautiful lemon yellow. For dyeing wool,
a large quantity of dry blossoms are boiled
slowly for about four hours. When the
color is deep enough the yarns are put
in and boiled for fifteen minutes. They
are now ready for the mordant, native
alum, a common mineral in many parts
of the desert. This is a white dry crustlike
salt with a sour, puckery taste. Indian
dyers carefully heat the alum until
Rabbitbrush. A common plant in many
parts of Arizona and California. The
yellow flowers made the lemon-colored
dyes used by the Navajo weavers.
it becomes pasty and then add it to the
dye bath while the yarn boils. Soda deepens
the color.
Another beautiful yellow from palest
canary to deep brass and old gold is furnished
by the leaves of the cottonwood
(populus fremontii) and other species.
Apparently this was not used as a textile
dye by the Indian weavers but it is
one of the best yellows and some of the
western tribes used a strong decoction
of the young leaves for a yellow and orange
dye for arrow feathers. This dye is
fast both to light and washing.
Green is a difficult color to make in
absence of a good blue which top-dyed
with yellow can make any shade. To obtain
green the Indians used leaf-green