What Does this Indian Symbol Mean?
Visitors to the Southwest are often intrigued
by the variety and aesthetic appeal of the design elements used
in Native American arts and crafts. The designs on Indian pottery,
weavings, baskets and silver and stone jewelry are so intricate
and carefully constructed, it is inconceivable they are not configurations
holding some deeper meaning, shaped from a forgotten age, relics
of an arcane language, or symbols of some old and secret religion.
In all cultures, symbols borrow from experience,
vision, and religion and become individualized through the creative
process of the artist/symbol-maker. The designs used in the Southwest
are from varied sources and they have been adapted and used by
divergent tribes. Some have sifted in slowly as different groups
arrived bringing their own inventory of designs; others have
arrived with new technologies; still others have origins and,
therefore, meanings, that will never be deciphered. The designs
may be decorative, symbolic or combinations of both. Meanings
may change from tribe to tribe. In one location a symbol may
have meaning and in an adjacent tribe be used entirely as a decorative
element. In short, every variation is possible.
If a symbol is produced by one culture and interpreted
by another, its meaning is far more often obscured than clarified.
So it is with the symbols and designs of the Indian people of
the Southwest. Over the years, both Native American designs (merely
decorative forms) and symbols (a sign representing an idea, a
quality or an association) have been subject to "interpretation" by
non-Indian dealers and traders. Often, these interpretations
are explained in terms of Anglo-European concepts that were nonexistent
to the Native American. The result frequently bears little or
no relationship to the true meaning of the symbols.
Designs and symbols used in the Southwest actually
have come from many places. Some design elements emerge out of
the nature of the craft. The warp and weft of baskets or blankets
produce a preponderance of geometrics, stars, swastikas and whirlwind
designs. One of the most controversial of Native American designs
is the swastika.
While the swastika immediately brings to mind
Nazi Germany, it is not only a native Southwestern design, it
can be called a native design almost anywhere in the world.
It is the result of basket weaving where the ends of a simple
cross design are turned either to the right or left, depending
on the direction of the weaving, to form a swastika. Its meanings
are as diverse as its worldwide origins.
Other designs also have been introduced with
the technology of a craft. For example, a host of designs appear
in metal dies which were derived from much older stamps used
to decorate leather.
These designs have been called by such fanciful
names as rattlesnake jaws, Thunderbird tracks or a medicine man's
eye. Others bear more prosaic names such as fence, tipi, mountain
range, hogan, sun's rays, headdress or running water. However,
in most instances they are purely decorative and their presence
may be noted far back in history as elements of cultures other
than that of the Native American.
In the craft of silversmithing, the Thunderbird
is used lavishly on stamped jewelry. The Thunderbird came to
the Southwest via industrial dies furnished to Indian artists.
While it is a symbol of importance among the
Plains Indians, this immense bird is neither characterized by
the Southwestern Indians, nor do their myths offer explanations.
Rather, the bird symbols of importance in the Southwest are the
giant Knife-wing of the Zuni or the vulture, Kwatoko, of the
Hopi. Nonetheless, the unknown individuals who supplied the dies
for the silver felt that the Thunderbird was a "good Indian design" and
so it appears on Southwestern jewelry and even on the beams of
the Great Hall in the Albuquerque International Airport.
The form of the silver naja, or pendant,
at the end of the squash blossom necklace is traceable to Moorish
Spain and even farther back in time to a device used to ward
off the evil eye.
Earlier still, it was found as boar's tusks
hanging point-to-point decorating a Roman legionnaire's staff.
In the same way, the squash blossom bead emerges from the pomegranate
blossoms of Spain.
Despite the multiple origins and mistaken interpretations
of designs and symbols used in the Southwest, it is possible
to recognize the meanings of many representations used in Native
American works. The simplest of all representations is that which
characterizes some element of the environment (bird, man, flower,
horse, etc.) and is clearly distinguishable. Almost always it
is used as a decorative device and nothing more, although its
form may vary from tribe to tribe.
These symbols are frequently seen on the pottery,
weavings and jewelry made by Native Americans of the Southwest
and generally can be interpreted as indicated. Several other
symbols that arise from Native American cultures have become
unrecognizable in their new "interpretations" including the butterfly.
The snake and lightning or lightning arrow are
considered by the native Southwesterner to be a single element
as they are the same visual form. The snake does not symbolize "defiance" except
possibly in New England, nor is its meaning "wisdom." Lightning
is used by Anglo-Europeans indoctrinated in Greek mythology to
denote swiftness, but among the Pueblo Indians snakes and lightning
are equated with and symbolize rain, hence, fertility.
These bird signs are often listed by traders as meaning "carefree
or light-hearted," but the symbol is the macaw, a Zuni symbol
This is but a glimpse of the rich inventory
of Native American designs and symbols which are an integral
part of antique and contemporary arts and crafts of this area
and, in the form of petroglyphs throughout the Southwest, on
the ancient rocks of this ancient land.
Thanks to Barton Wright of Phoenix, Arizona for contributing
and these drawings.
Originally appeared in
The Collector’s Guide to Albuquerque Metro Area - Volume
RESOURCE LISTS UPDATED WHEN VIEWED | ARTICLE CONTENT
September 24, 2007