Indigenous Americas Vocabulary

Adobe

the clay used to make a kind of sun-dried mud brick of the same name; a building made of such brick.

Backstrap Loom

a simple Andean loom featuring a belt or backstrap encircling the waist of the seated weaver.

Effigy Mounds

the ceremonial mounds built in the shape of animals or birds by native North American peoples.

Embroidery

the technique of sewing threads onto a finished ground to form contrasting designs.

Kiva

a large circular underground structure that is the spiritual and ceremonial center of Pueblo Indian life.

Pueblo

a communal multistoried dwelling made of stone or adobe brick by the Native Americans of the Southwest. Also used to refer to various groups that occupied such dwellings.

Roof Comb

the elaborately sculpted vertical projection surmounting a Maya temple-pyramid.