This striped blanket was made at a Hopi village in northeastern Arizona. The blanket is made of wool, which was introduced to the
Hopis by the Spanish in the 17th century. Before contact, the Hopis wove blankets from cotton
and other plant fibers, which they sometimes wrapped with rabbit fur or feathers for
added warmth.
Though Hopi weavers adopted new materials from the Spanish, they also maintained longstanding weaving traditions abandoned by other Indian societies. For example, they continued to weave cotton textiles for traditional religious ceremonies. They made these textiles for themselves and for other Indian societies that no longer produced them.
