The swastika independently arose in the New World, being in use for nearly 2000 years North America and South America. Just like in the Old World, the oldest uses of the swastika in North and South America tend to be most strongly correlated with agricultural societies.
Native Americans have always been the most prolific users of the swastika in the New World, although the symbol's popularity widened by the late 1800s. During this time, archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann published numerous books and photos relating to the archaeological excavations at Troy. The artifacts uncovered there had many swastikas, causing a tremendous interest in this symbol in Western nations. It was mostly used as a decoration or generic symbol of "good luck." Notably, it can be found in numerous architectural ornaments, post cards, and even business logos in the US and elsewhere from the 1870s to 1930s.
This article does not attempt to exhaustively cover every single instance of these purely decorative swastikas, but instead attempts to focus primarily on swastikas used by various Native Americans and non-Westerners. Many of the artifacts listed are only a few hundred years old, so it may be possible that some of the cultures listed here only started using the swastika once it gained massive popularity in the late 1800s. Due to the prevalence of grave robbing and the intensity of cultural destruction since contact with Western civilization, it can be difficult to find examples of accurately-dated ancient artifacts.
Nevertheless, a number of swastikas dating back thousands of years have been found throughout the New World, demonstrating the long-standing and widespread use of the swastika in North and South America. In the American Southwest, swastikas were used by Ancestral Puebloans, the Hohokam, and other ancient cultures. Eastwards, in the Mississippi River basin, the Hopewell and Mississippian cultures used the swastika. In ancient Peru and Colombia, the Moche, Sican/Lambayeque, Wari/Huari, and Tiwanaku/Tiahuanaco cultures used swastikas and swastika-like motifs. In Mesoamerica, there are multiple examples of the Maya civilization using swastikas, but it is unclear how extensively this symbol was used.
These four regions constitute the primary areas of ancient swastika use in the Americas. With the information we have, it appears that the swastika became common in North America, Mesoamerica, and South America by approximately 500-1000 AD. In North America, the oldest examples are among the Hopewell culture, likely appearing around 200 BC - 200 AD. In South America, the swastika may have appeared around 100 AD - 300 AD. It is not yet clear if the swastika arose independently in each of these areas, or if its use was spread through cultural exchange. We have next to no information about the names and meanings of the swastika in these cultures.
In modern times, over the past century-and-a-half the swastika and swastika-like symbols have been used by dozens of cultures in the Americas, over an area ranging from Alaska and Labrador in the north, to Chile and possibly Paraguay in the south.
Approximate location of the sites and cultures mentioned in this article.
How many more swastikas remain to be found in the New World?
If you have additional information or artifacts to share, please post them on the discussion page for this article:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/2021/04/native-american-swastikas-discussion.html
To return to the index of swastika articles, click here:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/the-swastika-aryan-symbol.html
Table of Contents
- 1. North America
- Native Americans in the US Southwest
- Native Americans elsewhere in the United States
- Hopewell culture
- Mississippian culture
- Mississippian culture, Nodena phase
- Cahuilla
- Delaware (Lenape)
- Kaw (Kanza/Kansa)
- Lakota (Teton Sioux)
- Mashpee Wampanoag
- Meskwaki (Fox)
- Nanticoke
- Nez Perce (Nimíipuu)
- Ojibwe (Chippewa)
- Osage
- Passamaquoddy
- Pomo
- Potawatomi
- Sac (Sauk)
- Secotan
- Skokomish (Coast Salish)
- Tlingit
- Wyam
- Yaqui
- Chilocco Indian Agricultural School
- Chicano Park mural
- Use by the US military, US government, Anglo-Americans, etc.
- Canada
- 2. Mesoamerica and the Caribbean
- 3. South America
- 4. Unconfirmed Swastikas
- 5. Other Unconfirmed and Unknown Swastikas
- Artifact from unspecified Northeastern USA culture
- Artifact from unspecified "Plains Indians" culture
- Artifact from unspecified Pacific Northwest USA culture
- Artifact from unspecified US Southwest culture
- Makah or Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka)
- Unconfirmed Mississippian culture artifacts
- Hupa, Yurok, or Karok
- Maidu
- Artifact from unspecified "Plains Indians" culture
- Unconfirmed Nez Perce (Nimíipuu) artifact
- Unconfirmed Skokomish (Coast Salish) artifact
- Unknown Native American ceramic
- Unknown Native American(?) jewelry
- Teotihuacan
- "Mexican" hieroglyph from unspecified culture
- Cerro de la Máscara petroglyph
- Tarascan state (Purépecha Empire)
- Pedra Pintada rock art(?)
- Unspecified Brazilian ossuary
- Additional unknown photos with no information
- 6. Swastika-like symbols
- Four-fold whorls
- Two conjoined S-shapes
- Tetraskelions
- Spirals
- Four-fold arrangement of bird motifs
- Four triangles arranged in a swastika-like pattern
- Sunwheel or Black Sun-like symbol
- Passamaquoddy and Wampanoag symbol
- So-called "Aztec swastika"
- Mississippian culture serpent motif
- Mesoamerican calendars
- 7. Index of Names and Meanings of the Swastika
- Footnotes
1. North America
Native Americans in the US Southwest
Introduction
Within the United States, the swastika is most prevalent among Native American nations in the Southwest. This includes the sedentary agriculturalist Puebloan peoples (among whom we find the oldest examples of swastikas in this region) and traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures they were in contact with, such as the Navajo and Apache.
As part of a WWII propaganda campaign, various Native American groups in Arizona agreed to stop using the swastika in 1940. Throughout the 1930s, "white" sellers of Native American arts had previously discouraged Native Americans from using the swastika and even discontinued selling products with the swastika,[1] despite the high popularity of the symbol in prior decades. It has been suggested these "white" merchants were the ones who 'convinced' Native Americans to reject the swastika, so they could continue selling their wares.
Popularity of the design waned, eventually resulting in a proclamation signed on February 28, 1940, in Tucson by representatives from the Hopi, Navajo, Apache, and Tohono O’odham (formerly Papago) tribes, renouncing and banning the use of the swastika on their artwork. The text of this parchment document read:
"Because the above ornament which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples, Therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly known today as the swastika or fylfot on our blankets, baskets, art objects, sandpaintings and clothing."
It is likely that the signing of the document by members of southwest tribes was a form of public relations arranged by area traders to distance Indian handicrafts from the atrocities occurring overseas.[1]
Further reading suggests this declaration against the swastika was by no means accepted by all Native Americans in the region, as many were keenly aware that this declaration was a continuation of cultural destruction at the hands of Western colonists. Some Anglo-Americans spoke out against this as well.[2] The signing apparently generated enough interest to be covered in local newspapers as far as Pennsylvania. The newspaper below says the signing occurred on February 25th, indicating this may have been a multiple-day-long event.
Tuesday, Feb. 27. [1940]
Dissention arose ... in the Hopi Indian tribe over use of the swastika in blanket and basket weaving.
Two days ago a Hopi chief, John Joesicki, placed his signature along with those of Papago, Navajo and Apache leaders on a proclamation declaring they would no longer use the design because it ‘has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples.’
Today, however, representatives for the ancient Hopi villages in northern Arizona said there was ‘no sense’ in giving up the swastika, a symbol of friendship among Indians for many generations.
‘We know of another nation that desecrates the white man’s cross,’ they said. ‘Because of this, should the cross be thrown way?’[3]
Caption for photo above:
"Picture released on February 28, 1940 of Hopi artist Fred Kabotie (L) and Apache Miguel Flores (R) along with other Indian tribes of Arizona, signing the parchment document banning the use of the Swastika from all designs in their basket weaving and blanket making and other hand-crafted objects, against Nazi "act of opression", in Tucson, Arizona."
Caption for photo above:
"2/28/40-Tucson, Arizona: Florence Smiley and Evelyn Yathe, Navajos of Tucson, Arizona are shown signing the imposing parchment document which formally outlawed the Swastika symbol from designs in Indian art, such as basket and blanket weaving. Four tribes, Navajos, Papagos, Apaches and Hopis banned the symbol which was in use by the Indians long before it came to have a sinister significance. The document tells why Indians banned it."
This image is the one that seems to have been included in most newspapers of the time.[4][5][6][7]
"Four Indian Tribes End Use of Swastika.
Four tribes of Arizona Indians, the Navajo, Papago, Apache and Hopi, today through their head-men at the Indian concave here banned the use of the swastika from all designs in their basket weaving and blanket making.
[...]
Signatures on the imposing parchment document draw up by one of the Indian artist included those of Roman Pancero, Papago; Charles De Courcy, Navajo; Joe Joesicki, Hopi; and Miguel Flores, Apache.
The proclamation, as prepared by the Indians, shows a large black swastika at the top which has been crossed out.
[...]
For many years the swastika has been a commonly used design by the basket weavers and the blanket weavers both of whom included it in their domestic workmanship more than in commercial objects.
[...]
The Indians, gathered here for the annual Indian Day programs of the midwinter rodeo, held a solemn ceremony at noon as they prepared to sign the proclamation.
A basket, a blanket and some hand-decorated clothing were placed together, then some of the colored sand used by Navajo sand painters was sprinkled over them and the various pieces were burned.
None of the Indians present could say the exact number of years the swastika has been a symbol of their handicraft, but the Papago claimed it has been used in their baskets for many generations."[8]
Caption: "Navajos Renounce their Swastika Design after U.S. Declares War"[9]
In the US, Native American use of the swastika has been making a resurgence since the 1960s-1970s, with the rise of various Native American activist groups who have courageously pushed back against the taboos and 'aesthetics' of Western civilization.
The following list of Native American nations using the swastika is not exhaustive. Again, many of the artifacts are only a few hundred years old. However, they nevertheless demonstrate the extensive and long-term use of the swastika in the American Southwest.
Map of Native American nations in the Southwest before contact with Western civilization.
Ancestral Puebloan
Archaeologists have named the ancient people who inhabited a large part of the northern section of the American Southwest as the "Ancestral Puebloan" people. The Ancestral Puebloans were agriculturalists who lived in large villages. By the 1300s AD, perhaps due to changing climatic conditions, they left the northernmost parts of their territory and migrated southward. In their absence, the Navajo people moved in.
In historic US records, they were referred to as the Anasazi. The word Anaasází is a Navajo word meaning "ancestors of our enemies", indicating a long-standing conflict between the semi-nomadic Navajo hunter/herders and the sedentary agriculturalist Puebloan cultures.
Present-day Puebloan cultures such as the Acoma, Hopi, and Zia are descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans.
Antelope House ruins at the Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona. Swastika overlooking the ruin.
(Photographer incorrectly says it may be the Lodge ruin). Photo by Tom Mahood, 2013.
https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/archaeology/canyon-de-chelly-54-62013/
Antelope House was inhabited from approximately 1050-1270 AD.[10]
Photos from above do not make it clear if this is a swastika with all four "arms", or if the bottom hook is missing:
Photo by Flickr user rcaustintx, June 2, 2019.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/9681508@N03/51342321058/
Petroglyphs in Zion National Park, Utah. Cave Valley. Photo by the website Utah Petroglyphs, 2016.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170808015559/http://utahpetroglyphs.org/?p=169
Painting said to be "Rock painting of shaman in Moab, Utah". I am unable to find more information on this. Note, however, that the swastika and the symbols on the circle surrounding it are the same as on the Hopi gourd rattle (see the section on the Hopi below).
https://web.archive.org/web/20081222025718/http://worldreligion.nielsonpi.com/5ritual.html
Black-on-white Ancestral Puebloan bowl. Date and Origin unknown.
https://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/native-american-pottery-non-lithic-artifacts-gc23/136564-hohokam-bowl-and-swastika-symbol?p=136566#post136566
https://www.treasurenet.com/forums/north-american-indian-artifacts/438137-hohokam-bowl-swastika-symbol.html#post4244440
Bowl from the Pueblo Bonito archaeological site in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, ca. 850-1150 AD. Catalog number A336196-0 in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/anth/
Ancestral Puebloan ladle from "Northeast Arizona, Upper Gila Area, Salt Area". In the collection of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Object number 29-78-894, URL identifier 343425.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/343425
***
In The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, he cites the work of Gustaf Nordenskiöld, who was the first archaeologist to study the Mesa Verde area.
"G. Nordenskiöld, in the report of his excavations among the ruined pueblos of the Mesa Verde, made in southwestern Colorado during the summer of 1891, tells of the finding of numerous specimens of the Swastika. In pl. 23, fig. 1, he represents a large, shallow bowl in the refuse heap at the “Step House.” It was 50 centimeters in diameter, of rough execution, gray in color, and different in form and design from other vessels from the cliff houses. The Swastika sign (to the right) was in its center, and made by lines of small dots." - Thomas Wilson (1898)
Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1893). The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, Southwestern Colorado. Plate 23 is linked below. It is described on page 82.
https://archive.org/details/cliffdwellersofm00nord/page/196/mode/2up
From what I have read, the Step House site dates to around 600-1200 AD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa_Verde_National_Park
"...His pl. 27, fig. 6, represents a bowl found in a grave (g on the plan) at “Step House.” Its decoration inside was of the usual type, but the only decoration on the outside consisted of a Swastika, with arms crossing at right angles and ends bent at the right, similar to fig. 9." - Thomas Wilson (1898)
Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1893). The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, Southwestern Colorado. Plate 27 is linked below. It is described on page 40.
https://archive.org/details/cliffdwellersofm00nord/page/212/mode/2up
"...His pl. 18, fig. 1, represented a large bowl found in Mug House." - Thomas Wilson (1898)
(Wilson made a typo, it is plate 28.)
Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1893). The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, Southwestern Colorado. Plate 28 is linked below.
https://archive.org/details/cliffdwellersofm00nord/page/214/mode/2up
The Mug House site dates from around 700-1300 AD:
Arthur H. Rohn. (1971). Wetherill Mesa Excavations: Mug House, Mesa Verde National Park - Colorado. Page 18.
https://archive.org/details/mughousemesaverd00rohn/page/18/mode/2up
***
Description: "Anasazi Snowflake Black on White "Angry" Goose, ca. 1100 - 1250 AD". Sold by Artemis Gallery on the auction website LiveAuctioneers, February 13, 2010. LotID 7058779, LotNumber 0276. Provenance: "Ex-M. Miller Collection, Texas."
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/7058779_anasazi-snowflake-black-on-white-angry-goose
The same artifact viewed from the front.
Description: "Large Early Anasazi Pottery Olla, Black & White on Red" Sold by Case Antiques, Inc. Auctions & Appraisals on the auction websites Invaluable and LiveAuctioneers. July 24, 2021, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Lot 685, CatalogID 703840. Provenance: "The Estates of Ora and Eleanor Eads, Nashville, TN.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/large-early-anasazi-pottery-olla-black-white-on-r-685-c-4914f7c82c
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/105985306_large-early-anasazi-pottery-olla-black-and-white-on-red
Description: "Black-on-white ladle, San Juan Anasazi, San Juan County, Utah, 900-1050 AD". Exhibit in the Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black-on-white_ladle,_San_Juan_Anasazi,_San_Juan_County,_Utah,_900-1050_AD,_ceramic,_paint_-_Natural_History_Museum_of_Utah_-_DSC07403.JPG
Hohokam
The Hohokam is an archaeological culture located to the southwest of the Ancestral Puebloans, which existed from around 300-1500 AD. The Hohokam built large irrigation systems and had trade networks with the Ancestral Puebloans.
Anthropologists believe the Akimel O'odham ("Pima") and Tohono O'odham ("Papago") are the descendants of the Hohokam.
Petroglyph near Heard Scout Pueblo, Phoenix, Arizona. The "Pueblo" was built by the Boy Scouts. Information on the age of the carvings is unknown.
http://azruins.com/petroglyphs-in-south-mountain-part-1/
Description: "14 Hohokam. Jar, AD 900-1150." In the collection of the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
Source:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190504062225/http://fidella.com/photojournals/Pottery2017/index1.html
https://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/native-american-pottery-non-lithic-artifacts-gc23/136564-hohokam-bowl-and-swastika-symbol?p=136566#post136566
Description: "30N Hohokam Sacaton Red-on-Buff Bowl (Safford Regional Variety)", ca. 950-1125 AD. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170501174354/http://rarepottery.info/protect/hohokamsacaton.htm
Two swastika petrogylphs, said to be at the Hohokam Pima National Monument, near Sacaton, Arizona. This National Monument contains the archaeological site called Snaketown.
Photos found on the following websites:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160508005518/http://arizonaexperience.org/remember/hohokam-rock-art
https://web.archive.org/web/20160824223211/http://www.azpbs.org/arizonastories/ppedetail.php?id=98
Patayan
The Patayan is an archaeological culture which existed in southwestern Arizona and southern California. Around 700 AD, agriculture and ceramics arrived to the lower Colorado River valley area, beginning the Patayan culture. They engaged in significant trade with the Hohokam culture.
Anthropologists believe present-day cultures such as the Maricopa (Piipaash), Quechan (Yuma), Yavapai are their descendants.
Swastika petroglyph found by StoriesByAlex. He says it was found in a canyon in Black Mountain, Kern County, California.
Photo from Youtube video posted on March 18, 2020.
https://www.storiesbyalex.com/california_ancient_sites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uCtoQNTMjE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain_Rock_Art_District
(Unfortunately, in the video he repeats the incorrect claim that the oldest swastika is from an artifact from Mezine. See the article below for an examination of the Mezine artifact and how it is NOT a swastika):
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-mezine-carving-is-not-swastika.html
Salado
The Salado is an archaeological culture which existed around 1150 AD - 1400s AD. It was located in southeastern Arizona, between the Hohokam and Mogollon cultural areas. Similarly to these cultures, the Salado engaged in irrigated farming.
Salado culture pottery bowl with swastika-like design, ca. 1200-1600 AD. Object number 667-17-2706 in the California State Parks Museum collections.
http://www.museumcollections.parks.ca.gov/code/emuseum.asp
Description: "14N Salado Gila Polychrome Oval Bowl", ca. 1300-1450 AD. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170501193243/http://rarepottery.info/protect/saladogila.htm
Acoma Pueblo
The Acoma Pueblo is a village in present-day New Mexico. The village has been inhabited for at least 800 years, making it one of the oldest continuously-inhabited pueblos. This timeframe means the town was established immediately after the Ancestral Puebloans left their large pueblos in the Four Corners region.
Ceramic jar, Acoma Pueblo, ca. 1900-1910. Catalog number CAS 0370-0111 in the collection of California Academy of Sciences (CAS), San Francisco, California.
https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/collections/Index.asp
Apache
The Apache are a collection of related ethnic groups who live mainly in New Mexico and Arizona. Historically, they were nomadic hunters who moved into the Southwest region between 1200 - 1500 AD.
Western Apache culture basket, ca. early 1900s. Catalog number CAS 1983-0001-0014 in the collection of California Academy of Sciences (CAS), San Francisco, California.
https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/collections/Index.asp
Hopi
The Hopi people are descended from the Ancestral Puebloans. Today, the Hopi Reservation is located in Arizona. They live in a number of different villages, and the village of Oraibi (Orayvi) is believed to have been founded 800-900 years ago.
Rattle (called "aya" in the Hopi language).
Copy of the Hopi Prophecy Rock belonging to Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya.
The Prophecy Rock is located near Oraibi, Arizona. The original rock carving does not appear to have a swastika on it.
Photos from the 1995 Prayer Vigil for the Earth in Washington, DC. In both cases, the swastika is being used as a sun symbol.
Photos uploaded by Flickr user Tribal Ink News.
Map:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tribalinknews/4559016904/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tribalinknews/4559021050/
Rattle:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tribalinknews/4559019494/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tribalinknews/4559018712/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tribalinknews/4559020426/
1995 lecture by Banyacya. From 28:30 to 30:30 he explains the meaning of the gourd rattle and its symbolism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfFJFgnmJdE
From minute 20 to 23 he explains the meaning of the rattle further. He says the rattles are made yearly in February or March and given to boys. He also explains the meaning of the Prophecy Rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxs8T_RW0I4
Read more about Thomas Banyacya and the Prayer Vigil for the Earth below. In 1948 Banyacya was one of four Hopis who were given the duty of educating the world about Hopi culture and prophecy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Banyacya
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/15/us/thomas-banyacya-89-teller-of-hopi-prophecy-to-world.html
https://oneprayer.org/banyacya_statement.html
https://oneprayer.org/History.html
***
The rattle shown above is similar to figure 256 in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson. It came from the Hopi town of Walpi, Arizona, and was acquired by the Smithsonian museum around 1879.
Artifact is catalog number E42042-0 in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History collections.
https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/anth/
It is described in:
James Stevenson (1883). Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections Obtained from the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona in 1879. Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1880-81. Page 394, figure 562.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu218801882smit/page/394/mode/2up
"In the Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology for the year 1880-81 (p. 394, fig. 562) is described a dance rattle made from a small gourd, ornamented in black, white, and red (fig. 256). The gourd has a Swastika on each side, with the ends bent, not square... The U.S. National Museum possesses a large number of these dance rattles with Swastikas on their sides, obtained from the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. Some of them have the natural neck for a handle, as shown in the cut; others are without neck, and have a wooden stick inserted and passed through for a handle. Beans, pebbles, or similar objects are inside, and the shaking of the machine makes a rattling noise which marks time for the dance." - Thomas Wilson (1898)
Hopi rattle, purchased by the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1931. Both sides have a swastika (see link for another photo). Object number 31-23-96, URL identifier 274963.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/274963
Kachina dancers wearing an aya for a mask, published in Fewkes (1903), Plate L.
"Aya
This katcina appears in pairs in the Wawac, or Racing Katcina, and is readily recognized by the rattle (aya), which has swastika decorations on both sides, forming the head. The snout is seen in the blue projection near the left hand.
Aya wears the belt in a peculiar way, the ends hanging in front and behind, not on one side as is usually the case.
The red objects above the pictures represent rolls of paper-bread, the prizes in the races."
Illustration above published in:
Jesse Walter Fewkes. (1904). Hopi Katcinas Drawn by Native Artists. Extract from the 21st Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington: Government Printing Office. Plate L (50), Page 114.
https://archive.org/details/cu31924104075365/page/n213/mode/2up
Originally published in the following publication, although the scan below omits page 114.
Twenty-First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1899-1900. (1903).
https://archive.org/details/hopikatcinasdraw00fewk/page/n5/mode/2up
Manuscript 4731, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Local Numbers: NAA INV 08547426 NAA MS 4731.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/ead_component:sova-naa-ms4731-ref137
***
If the same design continues onto the part that is not visible, it is a swastika.
"Protohistoric Hopi" ladle, Pueblo IV period (1350-1600 AD), Koo-Uy-Kah, Arizona. Object number 39010, URL identifier 221306 in the collection of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/221306
***
In the following encyclopedia,[11] it says the swastika is a geographic representation of the Hopi migration myths of their ancestors.[11] It suggests that these myths indicate the ancestors of the Hopi migrated from South America before arriving in the Southwest,[12] perhaps bringing the swastika with them on their migrations. I have also heard it described that sometimes the Hopi use a swastika with only three hooks to represent their migration legends. However, Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya (see above) describes the swastika as a sun symbol, so the precise meaning of the Hopi swastika likely depends on the context.
I decided to dig a bit deeper into the sources quoted by the encyclopedia. Alexander M. Stephen lived in the Southwest from the 1880s until his death in 1894, and wrote detailed ethnographic accounts of the Navajo and Hopi peoples.[13] He reported that the swastika symbol found on the aya rattles is called "ai'veni".[14] Stephen also spoke to Pauwati'wa, Hopi leader of the Reed clan of the Goat kiva,[15] who suggested that the swastika was derived from the nakwách symbol, which represents brotherhood or friendship.[14]
The encyclopedia[11] also includes a rock art swastika in this section, which is similar in design to the ladle above.
"Petroglyph, Paiute Creek mouth, Glen canyon area, Utah.
Style 4 design. Informant recognition: The spiral ended swastika is a symbol meaning friendly or peace making.
[Redrawn from Turner 1963:49]"
I am unable to find the book/article by Turner.
Maricopa (Piipaash)
The Maricopa (Piipaash) people live in southern Arizona, surrounding the Phoenix metropolitan region in the Gila River Indian Community and Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community reservations.
According to Wikipedia, the Maricopa living in the Gila River Indian Community live in "Maricopa Colony" or "Maricopa Village", which is a small village close to the Estrella and Laveen neighborhoods in the Phoenix area.
There is also the city of Maricopa, Arizona, which borders the Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak-Chin) Indian Reservation. The Ak-Chin Community is headquartered in the city of Maricopa. However, they only became a federally-recognized tribe in 1961, and the primary inhabitants are Akimel O'odham (Pima) and Tohono O'odham ("Papago"), rather than the Maricopa people.
Anthropologists believe present-day cultures such as the Maricopa, Yavapai, and Quechan (Yuma) are the descendants of the Patayan culture, who also used the swastika.
Description: "Late 19th c Maricopa Wedding Vase".
This showed up in the search results as being listed on Etsy and Ebay, but it seems to have been sold and the pages are now 404'd and not captured by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The image url still works, however.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/631228391/rare-late-19th-c-maricopa-wedding-vase-4
https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-LATE-19TH-c-Maricopa-Wedding-Vase-4-Sacred-Direction-Swastika-Design-6-5-H-/113024385471
https://i.etsystatic.com/17173697/r/il/90b363/1616943389/il_794xN.1616943389_abzo.jpg
The title of this piece is labelled as "Maricopa Wedding Vase, ca. 19th Century", but the description says it's from the 1930s. Item #1111 in the collection of CulturalPatina, owned by Dennis Brining of Virginia.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/520514926/vintage-maricopa-wedding-vase-ca-19th
https://i.etsystatic.com/9473711/r/il/2bc342/1211817596/il_1140xN.1211817596_e4a7.jpg
Maricopa pottery bowl, by Susie Bill, ca. 1930s-1940s. Item #1424 in the collection of CulturalPatina, owned by Dennis Brining of Virginia.
https://www.culturalpatina.com/products/native-american-vintage-maricopa-pottery-bowl-by-suzie-bill-ca-1940s-1424
Maricopa pottery bowl, by Lula Young, ca. 1930s-1940s. Item #1124 in the collection of CulturalPatina, now sold to a collector.
https://www.culturalpatina.com/products/native-american-maricopa-poly-chrome-pottery-bowl-by-lula-young-ca-1940s-1124
Description: "9N Maricopa Polychrome Olla". Date unknown, perhaps from the 1930s-1940s. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160623064200/http://rarepottery.info/protect/MaricopaUnsigned.htm
Description: "18N Maricopa Black-on-Red". Date unknown, perhaps from the 1930s-1940s. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160623064200/http://rarepottery.info/protect/MaricopaUnsigned.htm
Description: "20N Maricopa Black-on-Red". Date unknown, perhaps from the 1930s-1940s. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160623064200/http://rarepottery.info/protect/MaricopaUnsigned.htm
Navajo
The Navajo people are the largest federally-recognized Native American nation in the United States and have the largest reservation--which is located primarily in Arizona.
The Navajo are closely related to the Apache peoples, and migrated to the Southwest around the same time period. Historically nomadic hunter-gatherers, they arrived in the region by 1400 AD and moved into the area which had been vacated by the Ancestral Puebloans.
Sand painting is an important custom in Navajo culture. The sand paintings can be used as a device to tell the story of different myths, legends, and matters of spiritual importance. One common legend found in Navajo sand paintings is the Whirling Log. The whirling log motif consists of a cross (the logs) with gods or human figures standing on the ends, giving four-fold rotational symmetry in the style of a swastika.
It appears that people on the internet also refer to "standard" swastikas used by the Navajo (卐 and 卍) as whirling logs, but it is unclear to me if the "standard" swastikas are also considered a representation of the whirling log myth, or should be considered a separate symbol. Some people also refer to all US Native American swastikas as whirling logs, but this should not be considered accurate.
James Stevenson. (1891). Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Painting of the Navajo Indians. Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1886-87. Page 229-285. See page 262, plate CXXI. Page 261-263 explains the story behind this sand painting.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu818861887smit/page/n609/mode/2up
The Navajo have other sand paintings in the shape of swastikas, such as the Whirling Rainbow, suggesting it is inaccurate to refer to all Navajo swastikas as whirling logs.
Whirling Rainbow - Navajo sand painting by Nelson J. Cambridge. Photo of the art published online in:
Steven McFadden. (2006). Odyssey of the 8th Fire. Day 35.
https://www.8thfire.net/Day_35.html
In The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, Wilson describes at great length a Navajo myth which is accompanied by a sand painting in his Plate 17. The image above is the full color version of the plate from the original source. To read the full description of the myth in Wilson's work, click here:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/thomas-wilson-swastika-earliest-known.html#Navajoes
The original source of this illustration is below:
Washington Matthews. (1887). The Mountain Chant: A Navajo Ceremony. Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1883-84. page 385-467. See page 450 for plate 17.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu518831884smit/page/n545/mode/2up
***
The type of art that the Navajos are perhaps most famous for are their rugs and textiles. Demand for these textiles was driven by "white" merchants in the late 1800s and early 1900s. "Authentic" Navajo rugs from this period are today considered a coveted collector's item among yuppies. "Standard" swastikas are a common symbol on these rugs.
John Bradford Moore (1855-1926) was a "white" man who set up a business in Crystal, New Mexico in the 1890s to 1910s in order to sell Native American goods to consumers in the US. His mail-order catalog gained a large following in the US. Apparently he designed many of his "Navajo rug" patterns himself and had his weavers mass produce these patterns for commercial sale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bradford_Moore
Navajo rug, "JB Moore Crystal Storm No. A75", ca. 1909-1920. Rug said to be made by "Dug-gau-eth-Ion bi Dazhie or a member of her weaving family." Exhibited at "The Navajo Rug" exhibition at Kings Art Center in Hanford, California, 2010. From the collection Charley and Valerie Castles; rug sold to a collector.
https://charleysnavajorugs.com/navajo-rug-exhibits/
J.B. Moore Navajo textile, 1920s. Item #1002a in the collection of CulturalPatina, owned by Dennis Brining of Virginia.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/474516170/native-american-historic-j-b-moore
There are many additional examples of J.B. Moore rugs with swastikas on them. I wonder if his company was one of the ones to compel Southwestern Native Americans to sign the 1940 declaration against the swastika? A few additional examples of his rugs can be seen below:
Navajo rug, ca. 1900-1920, catalog number 1986.847 in the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RugNavajo-BMA.jpg
https://www.artsbma.org/collection/rug-early-crystal-style/
Navajo rug, ca. 1900-1920, catalog number 1986.853 in the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama.
https://www.artsbma.org/collection/rug-early-crystal-style-2/
Akimel O'odham (Pima)
The Akimel O'odham ("river people") live in southwestern Arizona, and were historically called Pima by Spanish and US colonists.
Archaeologists believe they, and other O'odham-speaking peoples, are descended from the Hohokam culture, who lived in the same general area in Arizona.
Owl pot. Date unknown, perhaps from the 1930s-1940s. A similar owl pot is listed as having been purchased from the "Pima Indian Reservation" in 1935-1936. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160623064200/http://rarepottery.info/protect/MaricopaUnsigned.htm
Basket, ca. pre-1939, in the collection of the California State Parks Museum collections. Object number 498-42-5.
http://www.museumcollections.parks.ca.gov/code/emuseum.asp
Figure 258 in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, shows a "Pima war shield" with a swastika painted on it. At the time, it was owned by Mr. F. W. Hodge, of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Museum.
See the following link to read Wilson's description of it:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/thomas-wilson-swastika-earliest-known.html#Pimas
Bowl from Arizona. Date unknown, gifted to the museum in 1938. In the collection of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Object number 38-27-90, URL identifier 251044.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/251044
***
Note the similarity between the following swirling swastika designs on these baskets and the swirls found on Nodena Mississippian pottery.
Basket with two types of stylized swastikas, Arizona. Date unknown. In the collection of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Object number 38-27-24, URL identifier 374594.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/374594
Basket, ca. 1890. Catalog number BA-0304 in the Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
https://www.morningstargallery.com/basketry/newitem-kt6gh
Tohono O'odham ("Papago")
The Tohono O'odham ("desert people") live to the south of the Akimel O'odham in an arid portion of Arizona. Historically, they were called "Papago" by Spanish and US colonists, although today many reject this name.
Archaeologists believe they, and other O'odham-speaking peoples, are descended from the Hohokam culture, who lived in the same general area in Arizona.
Tohono O'odham polychrome pottery, ca. 1930s-1940s. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180409130825/http://rarepottery.info/protect/PapagoPottery.htm
Tohono O'odham woven basket, south/southwest of Tucson, Arizona, ca. early 1900s. Catalog number CAS 0145-0005 in the collection of California Academy of Sciences (CAS), San Francisco, California.
https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/collections/Index.asp
Quechan (Yuma)
Today the Quechan (Yuma) people live in the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, in the southwestern corner of Arizona and southeastern corner of California along the Colorado River.
Anthropologists believe present-day cultures such as the Quechan, Yavapai, and Maricopa (Piipaash) are the descendants of the Patayan culture, who also used the swastika.
Description: "7N Yuman Black-on-Red Wedding Vase." Date unknown. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20161107020354/http://rarepottery.info/protect/YumanPottery.htm
Yavapai
The Yavapai people live in west-central Arizona.
Anthropologists believe present-day cultures such as the Yavapai, Maricopa (Piipaash), and Quechan (Yuma) are the descendants of the Patayan culture, who also used the swastika.
Yavapai basket, early 20th century. Accession number 1939.371 in the collection of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yavapai_p1070211.jpg
https://cantorcollection.stanford.edu/objects-1/info
Zia
The Zia people are a Puebloan culture who live at Zia Pueblo (Tsi'ya) in New Mexico. The Zia are most noted for their solar symbol which was incorporated into the flag of New Mexico.
Zia pottery jar, ca. 1910. Item #1251 in the collection of CulturalPatina, owned by Dennis Brining of Virginia.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/572105091/native-american-historic-zia-poly-chrome
Native Americans elsewhere in the United States
Hopewell culture
The Hopewell culture was not a single nation of people, but is a term used to describe various archaeological sites which traded similar items and practiced some similar customs. It existed from around 100 BC to 500 AD in much of the Mississippi basin and Great Lakes regions. For thousands of years, the Hopewell culture's predecessors had been practicing agriculture. Specifically, the Eastern Agricultural Complex began intensive agricultural cultivation by at least 1800 BC in the Ohio River valley. Not surprisingly, the swastika can be found here as well.
"Hopewell Green Slate Ceremonial Swastika", ca. 200 BC - 200 AD. In the collection of the Barakat Gallery, SKU PF.0335. Precise location where this artifact was found is not provided.
https://store.barakatgallery.com/product/hopewell-green-slate-ceremonial-swastika/
Presumably this is the same artifact. I am unable to find the original source of this photo.
The following are excerpts from The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson. To read the entire chapter in Wilson's work, see here:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/thomas-wilson-swastika-earliest-known.html#PreColumbian
"Hopewell Mound, Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio.—A later discovery of the Swastika belonging to the same period and the same general locality—that is, to the Ohio Valley—was that of Prof. Warren K. Moorehead, in the fall and winter of 1891-92, in his excavations of the Hopewell mound, seven miles northwest of Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio.[254] The locality of this mound is well shown in Squier and Davis’s work on the “Monuments of the Mississippi Valley” (pl. 10, p. 26), under the name of “Clark’s Works,” here reproduced as pl. 11. ...[I]n opening trench 3, about five feet above the base of the mound, they struck a mass of thin worked copper objects, laid flat one atop the other, in a rectangular space, say three by four feet square. These objects are unique in American prehistoric archæology. ...
The following list of objects is given, to the end that the reader may see what was associated with these newly found copper Swastikas: Five Swastika crosses (fig. 244);"
[254] These explorations were made for the Department of Ethnology at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.
- Thomas Wilson (1898)
Figure 241 in Wilson's work.
Other artifacts found at the site demonstrate a trade network of considerable distance. This suggests the swastika could very well have been diffused across the entire continent in pre-Columbian times.
"Evidence was found of an extended commerce with distant localities, so that if the Swastika existed in America it might be expected here. The principal objects were as follows: A number of large seashells (Fulgur) native to the southern Atlantic Coast 600 miles distant, many of them carved; several thousand pieces of mica from the mountains of Virginia or North Carolina, 200 or more miles distant; a thousand large blades of beautifully chipped objects in obsidian, which could not have been found nearer than the Rocky Mountains, 1,000 or 1,200 miles distant; four hundred pieces of wrought copper, believed to be from the Lake Superior region, 150 miles distant; fifty-three skeletons, the copper headdress (pl. 13) made in semblance of elk horns, 16 inches high, and other wonderful things. Those not described have no relation to the Swastika." - Thomas Wilson (1898)
The artifacts were excavated by Warren K. Moorehead during 1891-1892 at the Hopewell Mound Group near Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio. The artifacts are housed in the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. In 2015, the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in collaboration with other institutions, began the Ohio Hopewell: Prehistoric Crossroads of the American Midwest project. They have photographed and provided a digital catalog of the Field Museum's Hopewell artifact collection.
http://hopewell.unl.edu/
http://hopewell.unl.edu/images.html
Wilson mentions five swastikas were found. However, this collection only has photos of two of them, one of which is Wilson's Fig. 244.
Item A110010 (catalog number 56204). Copper swastika. This is the figure published in Wilson's work.
See also this catalog number's listing in the Field Museum Anthropological Collections:
https://collections-anthropology.fieldmuseum.org/catalogue/1286768
Item A78501, an image showing 5 copper artifacts. The image includes a copper swastika (catalog number 56205), which is different from the one above.
Item A91000, a photograph of a display showing many different copper ornaments. The image includes both of the swastikas mentioned above.
Item CSA938, a photograph showing both of the swastika artifacts mentioned above.
See also the original photo albums of Hopewell Mounds. Specifically, Negative Numbers 938 and 78501 in Hopewell 44 and Negative Number 110010 in 44a.
http://hopewell.unl.edu/excavation_albums.html
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture proceeded the Hopewell culture in roughly the same geographic area, lasting from approximately 800 AD to 1600 AD.
This artifact appears as figure 237 in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson. It is a carved shell gorget found at Fains (Faines) Island, Tennessee, near the town of Dandridge. Catalog number A62928-0 in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History collections.
https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/anth/
Wilson writes:
"A specimen (fig. 237) was taken by Dr. Edward Palmer in the year 1881 from an ancient mound opened by him on Fains Island, 3 miles from Bainbridge, Jefferson County, Tenn. It is figured and described in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology..."[247]
[247] Page 436, fig. 140.
From the Third Annual Report mentioned above:
" MOUND ON FAIN'S ISLAND.
This mound is located on the east end of the island. Although it has been under cultivation for many years, it is still 10 feet in height. The circumference at the base is about 100 feet. Near the surface a bed of burned clay was encountered, in which were many impressions of poles, sticks, and grass. This was probably the remains of the roof of a house, which had been about 16 feet long by 15 feet in width. The bed of clay was about 4 inches thick. Beneath this was a layer of charcoal and ashes, with much charred cane. There were also indications of charred posts, which probably served as supports to the roof. Four feet below the surface were found the remains of thirty-two human skeletons. With the exception of seventeen skulls, none of the bones could be preserved. There seems to have been no regularity in the placing of the bodies.
William H. Holmes. (1884). Illustrated Catalogue of a Portion of the Collections Made by the Bureau of Ethnology During the Field Season of 1881. Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1881-82. Page 427-510. See page 466 for Fig. 140
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu318811882smit/page/466/mode/2up
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19416/19416-h/19416-h.htm
I am unable to find more information regarding the date of this artifact. A later excavation on the island took place in the 1930s, classifying the site as part of the Dallas Phase Mississippian (ca. 1300-1600 AD).[16] During this time period, the site was near the Native American city of Chiaha, which appears to have been a principality under the influence of the large Coosa kingdom. In the 1940s, a dam was constructed and submerged the island.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Phase
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coosa_chiefdom
Here is an article behind a paywall about Edward Palmer, who excavated the site:
Marvin D. Jeter. (1999). Edward Palmer: Present before the Creation of Archaeological Stratigraphy and Associations, Formation Processes, and Ethnographic Analogy. Journal of the Southwest Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 335-358.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40170103
Description: "Nashville II style shell gorget from Chickamauga Creek in the Chattanooga area of Hamilton County, Tennessee." I don't know which museum has this artifact.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nashville_II_style_gorget_HRoe_2012.jpg
Figures 268 and 269, in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson. See below to read a full description of them:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/thomas-wilson-swastika-earliest-known.html#EngravingsPaintings
Wilson's figure 268. Found near Nashville, Tennessee. Wilson says it is in the collection of the Peabody Museum, Yale University. I searched their collections online and didn't seem to see the artifact.
Artifact first described in the following publication:
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1880-81. Edited by J. W. Powell. Washington: Government Printing Office. (1883). Page 276, plate 55.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu218801882smit/page/276/mode/2up
Wilson's Figure 269. Found at Brakebill mound, near Knoxville, Tennessee.
Artifact first described in the following publication:
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1880-81. Edited by J. W. Powell. Washington: Government Printing Office. (1883). Page 276, plate 55.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu218801882smit/page/276/mode/2up
***
Shell gorgets found at the Spiro Mounds site, Oklahoma. The mound was plundered by grave robbers in the 1930s, so many artifacts and their original contexts have been lost. The site at Spiro dates to around 900-1450 AD.
Gorgets found in Craig Mound, Spiro. Two dancers with swastika in the center (left) and four birds arranged in a swastika-like pattern with a swastika carved in the center (top-right). I have sometimes seen the birds called a "Sunbird Swastika" on the internet, although I don't know if that's what archaeologists call it. Artifacts in the collection of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma
https://texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/images/spiro_gorgets.html
Clearer photo of the dancing twins artifact, showing the swastika.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Craig_C_style_shell_gorget_Spiro_HRoe_2005.jpg
The following link shows a replica of the artifact in the Spiro Mounds interpretive center, at the site of the mounds in LeFlore County, Oklahoma. Artifact is from Burial 108, Craig Mound, ca. 1200-1350 AD.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140707065650/http://oklahomahomeschool.com/FTCSpiro.html
Someone also made a colored version of this artifact. I don't know if the colors should be considered accurate or not.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S.E.C.C._hero_twins_3_HRoe_2007-transparent.png
Replica of a Craig Mound-style gorget from Spiro. Spider with swastika. In the collection of the Woolaroc Museum, Barnsdall, Oklahoma.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Replica_Craig_style_shell_Gorget_Woolaroc_1.jpg
Craig Mound-style gorget with concentric circles of hands surrounding a swastika, ca. 1200-1450 AD. In the collection of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma.
https://spiromounds.com/collection/objects/engraved-shell-gorget-with-human-hands-
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/850195235876654624/
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9e/02/4e/9e024eb13b06c8b52417e99fff7c69fc.jpg
From Figure 25a in Gardner (1980). Found in Spiro Mound.
Joan S. Gardner. (1980). The Conservation of Fragile Specimens from the Spiro Mound, LeFlore County, Oklahoma. Contributions from the Stovall Museum, University of Oklahoma, No. 5.
https://samnoblemuseum.ou.edu/publications/jean-s-gardner-the-conservation-of-fragile-specimens-from-the-spiro-mound-le-flore-county-oklahoma/
Mississippian culture, Nodena phase
Another common motif in Mississippian art is large intersecting whirls. Many of these have four "arms" in the style of a swastika. Others have 3, 5, 6, or more. However, given the use of other types of swastikas in Mississippian culture, in addition to the high frequency of the four-armed whirls, it is probably reasonable to consider this design to be a variant of a swastika.
Specifically, these designs are found on pottery and associated most strongly with the Nodena Phase of Mississippian culture. The Nodena Phase was an archaeological period that existed around 1400-1650 AD along the Mississippi River in Arkansas and parts of Missouri.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodena_Phase
Recall that a similar swastika whirl design is found in Akimel O'odham (Pima) baskets. For example, click here to go back to the previous section to see an example of these baskets. Note especially how in both the Akimel O'odham design and Mississippian design below, the swastika has a hole where the lines intersect.
Nodena bottle, in the collection of the Hampson Museum State Park in Wilson, Arkansas. Hampton ID: LR_41635, Ark Hm 401.
https://hampson.cast.uark.edu/view/2
Photo published by Dr. Michael Fuller:
https://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/NodenaPotteryPaint.html
Nodena bottle, Arkansas, ca. 1000-1500 AD. From the Jack Roberts Collection, Tunica, Mississippi. Sold at auction by Cowan's Auctions, 2018, lot 0079 item 66588710.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/66588710_a-nodena-swirl-water-bottle-9-12-x-6-14-in
Description: "Mississippian bottle with a Nodena swirl design. ... Personal find of R. W. Lyerly in Poinsett County, Arkansas."
Description: "Mississippian Nodena swirl design bottle found by R. W. Lyerly in Poinsett County, Arkansas."
The two images above were published on the Central States Archaeological Societies (CSASI) website, from the Spring 2003 journal (Volume 50, No. 2).
https://csasi.org/2003_spring_journal/2003_selected_pictures_from_the_spring_journal.htm
Figures 289, 290, and 294 in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, describe Nodena ceramics. See the excerpt from his book where he describes these artifacts:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/thomas-wilson-swastika-earliest-known.html#NativeAmericanPottery
Wilson's Figure 289. Ceramic found in Arkansas.
The artifact above was first described in the publication below:
William H. Holmes. (1886). Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley. Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1882-83. Edited by J. W. Powell. Washington: Government Printing Office. Page 403, fig. 413.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu418821883smit/page/402/mode/2up
Wilson's Figure 290. Ceramic found at Pecan Point, Arkansas.
The artifact above was first described in the publication below:
William H. Holmes. (1886). Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley. Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1882-83. Edited by J. W. Powell. Washington: Government Printing Office. Page 404, fig. 415.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu418821883smit/page/402/mode/2up
Wilson's Figure 294. Ceramic found in Arkansas.
The artifact above was first described in the publication below:
William H. Holmes. (1886). Ancient Pottery of the Mississippi Valley. Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: 1882-83. Edited by J. W. Powell. Washington: Government Printing Office. Page 421, fig. 442.
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu418821883smit/page/402/mode/2up
***
In 1897 Charles Clark Willoughby published an article with many small illustrations of Mississippian pottery, many of which had swastikas. Willoughby extensively cites artifacts from the Peabody Museum. There is a Peabody Museum at Yale University and one at Harvard University. Willoughby spent many decades employed at Harvard's Peabody Museum, and we may therefore assume the artifacts came from their collections.
Images are from the following article:
Charles Clark Willoughby. (January - March 1897). An Analysis of the decorations upon Pottery from the Mississippi Valley. Journal of American Folk-Lore, 10(36): 9-20.
https://archive.org/details/prehistoricarto00uphagoog/page/n519/mode/2up
Fig 11a in Willougby (1897). Vase from Missouri. In the collection of "St. Louis Academy." (Presumably this is The Academy of Science – St. Louis. The Saint Louis Science Center was founded by The Academy and presumably has the artifact in their large archaeological collection today.)
Figure 12b in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Bowl decorated with terraced figures and swastika, symbols of the clouds and the four winds. Arkansas." In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 14b in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Bowl decorated with symbol of the four winds." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 14c in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Bottom of vase with swastika decoration." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 14d in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Bottom of vase with swastika decoration." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 14e in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Bowls with symbol of the four winds or swastika." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 14f in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Bowls with symbol of the four winds or swastika." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 15a and b in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Vase decorated with three swastikas, the ends of some of the arms of the crosses being curved to fill the blank space on vase." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 16a, b, and c in Willoughby (1897). Description: "a. Vase with swastika decorations, the ends of the arms of the crosses being joined; b. Vase seen from below, showing sun disk and cruciform figure formed by the lower arms of the swastikas; c. Design encircling the vase." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Perhaps object number 80-20-10/22038 in the Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Parkin Phase of the Mississippian culture, 1350 - 1550 AD. Artifact from Rose Mound; Arkansas State # 3CS27. Wittsburg, Arkansas.
https://collections.peabody.harvard.edu/objects/details/128739?ctx=c59c401bdcce3e0b1a3e73a9233a24fdef4bd60b&idx=280
Figure 17a in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Vases decorated with joined swastikas and other designs." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 17b in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Vases decorated with joined swastikas and other designs." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 17c in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Vases decorated with joined swastikas and other designs." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 17d in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Vases decorated with joined swastikas and other designs. Upon the neck of d four terraced cloud figures are painted, and the legs of the vessel are also terraced." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Figure 17e in Willoughby (1897). Description: "Vases decorated with joined swastikas and other designs." Arkansas. In the collection of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Cahuilla
The Cahuilla people have lived in southern California since at least the early 1700s.
Bowl from Cahuilla, California. Catalog number YPM ANT 148132 in the Yale Peabody Museum.
https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-148132
Delaware (Lenape)
Historically, the Lenape people lived in an area corresponding to present-day New Jersey, northern Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and southern New York. By the late 1700s, they had been expelled westward, and in the 1800s they were expelled multiple times before reaching Oklahoma by the mid-1800s.
Delaware culture tobacco pipe bag. Date unknown.
State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photo by Esteban Cavrico.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36179943@N00/42460850/
Judging by the horse shoes on the bottom of the bag, maybe both they and the swastika are generic post-1870s "good luck" symbols?
Kaw (Kanza/Kansa)
The oral history of the Kaw (Kanza) people suggests they migrated from somewhere in the Ohio River basin and reached the northeastern portion of Kansas by the mid-1600s. By the 1870s they had been forcibly moved to Oklahoma.
Figure 255 in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, shows a Kaw nation war chart described by J. Owen Dorsey in 1885. Dorsey reports that the Kaw war leader had told him the symbol was in use for many generations.
J. Owen Dorsey. (July 1885). Mourning and War Customs of the Kansas. The American Naturalist, Vol. 19, No. 7, page 670-680.
See Plate XX after page 676 for the war chart.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2450101
To read Wilson's commentary about this artifact, click here:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/thomas-wilson-swastika-earliest-known.html#Kansas
Lakota (Teton Sioux)
By the 1600s-1700s the Lakota people inhabited the regions of North and South Dakota.
Photo of Rosebud Yellow Robe (1907-1992), ca. 1927. She was a folklorist born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation of South Dakota, which belongs to the Sičháŋǧu Oyáte Lakota nation (also called Sicangu and Brulé), a sub-group of the Lakota people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosebud_Yellow_Robe
Photo in the Denver Public Library Special Collections. Call number X-31841, CONTENTdm number 31983.
https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p15330coll22/id/31983
Lakota culture pipe and tobacco pouch, ca. 1900. In the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Accession number 305336, USNM number E415796-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8447135
Mashpee Wampanoag
The Mashpee Wampanoag are a branch of the historic Wampanoag Confederacy who continue to live in southeastern Massachusetts.
Image cropped from a portrait of Mashpee Wampanoag members from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1929.
Photo in the Leslie Jones Collection, Boston Public Library.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378433417/in/album-72157628085309273/
Meskwaki (Fox)
Around the 1600s, the Meskwaki (Fox) people lived along the St. Lawrence River in Ontario. Over centuries of warfare with other Native peoples and colonial powers, they moved to Michigan, Illinois, and were later forcibly moved to Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Since at least the early 1700s, the Meskwaki have been closely associaed with the Sac (Sauk) people.
Meskwaki (Fox) beaded vest, c. 1925. Iowa. In the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jondresner/4376997869/in/gallery-iamcosmos-72157708429063185/
Nanticoke
The Nanticoke people historically lived in the region around Delaware and Maryland.
Jane Harmon (or Janie Harman), photographed in Millsboro, Delaware, 1922. Photos in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. Frank Gouldsmith Speck photograph collection / Series 8: Delaware: Nanticoke and Rappahannock.
Image identifier NMAI.AC.001.032, Item N12470.
https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/archives/components/sova-nmai-ac-001-032-ref1019
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/ead_component:sova-nmai-ac-001-032-ref1019
Jane Harmon (left) with Mohegan woman Gladys Tantaquidgeon, assistant to Frank Gouldsmith Speck (the photographer), 1922.
Image identifier NMAI.AC.001.032, Item N12475.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/ead_component:sova-nmai-ac-001-032-ref1024
See additional photos:
Image identifier NMAI.AC.001.032, Item N12477.
https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/archives/components/sova-nmai-ac-001-032-ref1026
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/ead_component:sova-nmai-ac-001-032-ref1026
Image identifier NMAI.AC.001.032, Item N12479.
https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/archives/components/sova-nmai-ac-001-032-ref1028
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/ead_component:sova-nmai-ac-001-032-ref1028
Nez Perce (Nimíipuu)
The Nez Perce (Nimíipuu) historically lived in the Columbia Plateau region in present-day Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
War Bonnet with swastikas on the sides. Date unknown. In the collection of the Nez Perce National Historical Park Museum, Spalding, Idaho. Catalog number NEPE 2225.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190713131225/https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/nepe/exb/dailylife/GenderRoles/NEPE2225-2226(2)_Head-dress.html
Detail of the war bonnet above.
Belt pouch, made by Jennie Dickson, ca. 1915. In the collection of the Nez Perce National Historical Park Museum, Spalding, Idaho. Catalog number NEPE 6990.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190713131821/https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/nepe/exb/Special%20Feature_Textiles/NEPE6990_Bag.html
In addition, there is "Swastika Trail #233" and "Swastika Road #222-D" in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, located near Elk City, Idaho. Although it is unclear if the names came from the Nez Perce use of the swastika, or the pre-WWII swastika craze among Anglo-Americans.
Ojibwe (Chippewa)
The Ojibwe people historically lived along the entire span of the northern portion of the Great Lakes in the US and Canada.
John Smith (1820s-1922), who lived near the Cass Lake, Minnesota, area. Due to his skin disease, photographers falsely claimed he was well-over 120 years old. I am unable to find more info on the date or original photographer of this image.
Osage
By the 1800s, the Osage had migrated to the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, near where their current reservation is.
Peter Bigheart, leader of the Osage Nation, wearing a swastika lapel, 1909.
Photo by William J. Boag. In the collection of the Gilcrease Museum/The University of Tulsa, Accession Number 4327.5813.
https://collections.gilcrease.org/object/43275813
Another print of this photo, in the Library of Congress. Library of Congress Control Number 97512111, Digital Id cph 3c19215.
https://www.loc.gov/item/97512111/
Detail of the photo above.
Another photo of Bigheart from the same session:
In the collection of the Gilcrease Museum/The University of Tulsa, Accession Number 4327.4407.
https://collections.gilcrease.org/object/43274407-0
***
"Asked if the sign was common and to be seen in other cases or places, Mr. Dorsey replied that the Osage have a similar chart with the same and many other signs or pictographs—over a hundred—but except these, he knows of no similar signs." -Thomas Wilson, The Swastika (1898).
He is referring to a similarity with the Kaw war chart.
Passamaquoddy
The Passamaquoddy people historically lived in the areas of New Brunswick, Canada, and Maine, USA.
In the 1920s, many photos were taken of William Neptune, leader (Governor) of the Passamaquoddy nation of the Pleasant Point Reservation, Maine.
Governor Neptune in Boston, 1921.
Photo in the Leslie Jones Collection, Boston Public Library.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378437437/
Additional photos from the Boston Public Library:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378431645/in/album-72157628085309273/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378433625/in/album-72157628085309273/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378440191/in/album-72157628085309273/
The following 2 pictures might also be Neptune (farthest right):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378434097/in/album-72157628085309273/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378437531/in/photostream/
Photo allegedly from 1920, original source is not provided.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Neptune,_Passamaquoddy_chief,_1920.jpg
Additional photos in the collection of the Maine Historical Society. 1920.
https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/23416
https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/23419
Another photo. Original source unknown.
Pomo
The Pomo people historically lived in northern California along the coast and extending inland.
Pomo culture hat, northern California, ca. 1890s. Catalog number CAS 0129-0001 in the collection of California Academy of Sciences (CAS), San Francisco, California.
https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/collections/Index.asp
Potawatomi
In the 1600s, the Potawatomi lived in Michigan. In the early 1800s, they were forcibly moved to Kansas and Nebraska on the Trail of Death. A few decades later, they were forced to relocate to Oklahoma.
RoMere Darling (Martin) (1911-1979). She was a Potawatomi actress and community organizer. Photo believed to be from around 1950.
See more information about her, compiled by the blogger BrokenClaw, below:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160608021200/http://blog.brokenclaw.net/archives/romere-darling1
https://web.archive.org/web/20160608001532/http://blog.brokenclaw.net/archives/romere-darling2
https://web.archive.org/web/20160608042116/http://blog.brokenclaw.net/archives/romere-darling3
See also the section titled Kickapoo, Pottawatomie, and Iowa for a brief description of the swastika among these cultures (without any photos).
Sac (Sauk)
In the 1600s, the Sac (Sauk) people lived along the St. Lawrence River in northern New York. Over centuries of warfare with other Native peoples and colonial powers, they moved to Michigan, Illinois, and were later forcibly moved to Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Since at least the early 1700s, the Sac have been closely associaed with the Meskwaki (Fox) people.
Plates 15 and 16 in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, show beaded swastika necklaces and garters which were shown to Mary A. Owen by members of the Sac and Fox Reservation in Kansas. Owen says the Sac and related cultures are sun worshippers and they call the swastika "luck" or "good luck". She says the beadwork looked very well-worn and the Sacs told her they had "always" made swastika patterns in their beadwork, so it seems unlikely that it was derived from the post-1870s Western use of the swastika as a generic symbol of good luck.
For more information on these artifacts, click here:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/thomas-wilson-swastika-earliest-known.html#Sacs
Secotan
The Secotans were one of the southeastern-most Algonquian peoples (inhabiting the eastern coastal region of North Carolina), and thereby culturally related to nations such as the Wampanoag and Passamaquoddy. They were ethnically cleansed by Western colonists by the late 1600s.
A swastika with small hooks was one of the symbols used to represent a clan, dynasty, or certain villages. Pomeiooc (Pomeyooc/Pamlico) and Aquascogoc were towns of the Secotan nation where this motif was used.
Swastika scarification marking or tattoo used in Pomeiooc and/or Aquascogoc. Illustration from Hariot's Narrative of The First Plantation of Virginia in 1585.
"The inhabitants of all the cuntrie for the most parte haue marks rased on their backs, whereby yt may be knowen what Princes subjects they bee, or of what place they haue their originall. [...] Those which haue the letters E. F. G. are certaine cheefe men of Pomeiooc, and Aquascogoc."
Thomas Hariot. (1st ed. 1588; illustrated ed. 1590). Hariot's Narrative of The First Plantation of Virginia in 1585. (1893). London: Bernard Quaritch. Plate XXIII.
https://archive.org/details/narrativefirste00harigoog/page/n132/mode/2up
Skokomish (Coast Salish)
The Skokomish are a sub-group of the Twana, who have historically lived on the western coast of the Puget Sound in Washington state. The Twana are considered part of the "Coast Salish", a group of related ethnic groups who lived along the Puget Sound and coastal British Columbia.
Description: "This basket shows the four winds motif, symbolic of the power and strength of the wind. ... Since World War II, it has disappeared from all Coat Salish art."
Basket collected in 1916 on the Tulalip Reservation, Snohomish County, Washington. Catalog number 5/7926, barcode number 057926.000.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:NMAI_62495
Photo found on the following website, I am unable to find the original photographer:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190915055703/http://swastikaphobia.weebly.com/native-american.html
See this interview with Marilyn Jones, Skokomish community curator, describing the meaning of the Skokomish four winds swastika symbol. The basket was on display at the exhibition titled "Listening to Our Ancestors" at the National Museum of the American Indian, around 2013.
Uploaded to Youtube on March 13, 2013, by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
https://learninglab.si.edu/resources/view/357925
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7dMJZbmGP8
Basket collected in 1916 on the Tulalip Reservation, Snohomish County, Washington. Catalog number 5/7890, barcode number 057890.000.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:NMAI_62459
In the previous image, the caption in the bottom-right describes this basket as Skokomish. On the Smithsonian collection's website, it says this artifact was collected from the Tulalip Reservation in Washington and labels it as being from the Twana culture. Twana is the collective name for nine Coast Salish nations in the Puget Sound region of Washington--which includes the Skokomish culture and Tulalip culture.
Tlingit
The Tlingit people historically lived along the Alexander Archipelago--the southeastern coastal region of Alaska.
Tlingit culture basket, southeast Alaska, donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1939. Accession number 153865, USNM number E379791-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8415615
Tlingit culture basket (Alaska?). Collected or donated to the museum in 1962. Catalog number 09160 in the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College Digital Collections.
https://dcms.beloit.edu/digital/collection/logan/id/3297
Caption: "Chilkat Blanket and Woman". (See the baskets).
Photo published in:
Livingston F. Jones. (1914). A Study of the Thlingets of Alaska. Fleming H. Revell Company. Page 168.
https://archive.org/details/cihm_74375/page/n197/mode/2up
According to Wikipedia, Chilkat weaving is a style of weaving practiced by the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures, although the name originates from the Tlingit people of the Chilkat (Jilkháat) region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilkat_weaving
Wyam
The Wyam are a subgroup of the Tenino people, who historically inhabited the north-central area of Oregon.
Tommy Thompson was the leader of Celilo Village, Oregon, from the early 1900s until his death in 1959. Photo from 1935.
Photo in the Gerald W. Williams Collection at Oregon State University. Item number WilliamsG:NA_Thompson.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chief_Tommy_Thompson_at_Celilo_Falls,_Oregon_(3230030878).jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34586311@N05/3230030878
https://oregondigital.org/sets/gwilliams/oregondigital:df66tv070
Yaqui
The Yaqui people historically lived in what is now northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Little Chief White Eagle (Bill Reed) on the right wearing a swastika. According to the caption, he is from California, although the Yaqui people are also found in the American Southwest and into Mexico. On the left is Princess Rainbow Sistesso, a Sioux woman and White Eagle's soon-to-be wife. October 1930.
Denver Public Library Special Collections. Call number X-31186, CONTENTdm number 23638.
https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p15330coll22/id/23638
Chilocco Indian Agricultural School
Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in northern Oklahoma operated as a Native American boarding school from 1884 to 1980. Students of many different nations attended the school, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Navajo, Creek, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Wichita, Comanche, and Pawnee. On some of the school's sports uniforms, they used swastikas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilocco_Indian_Agricultural_School
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schools
Chilocco Indian School basketball team, 1909. Photo in the collection of the US National Archives, identifier number 251717.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basketball_team_on_Home_1_Steps,_1909_-_NARA_-_251717.tif
Chilocco Indian School basketball team, 1909. Photo in the collection of the US National Archives, identifier number 251737.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Basketball_Team,_Standing_1909_-_NARA_-_251737.jpg
Chicano Park mural
Chicano Park is located in the Barrio Logan neighborhood in San Diego, California. Chicano is a term used to refer to Americans of Latino heritage, which carries the political connotations of rejecting assimilation into Western civilization and rejection of the idea of America as a "white"-by-default nation.
Photo from 2002 by Carlo Terlizzi:
http://www.carloterlizzi.com/Photojournalism/chicano_park/chicano_park_037.htm
At some point the mural was repainted. I don't know when this particular mural was originally painted. Photo by Flickr user teddeady:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/teddeady/11099601015/in/album-72157638143606024/
Next to the swastika is the flag of the United Farm Workers (UFW), a labor union of largely Latino farm workers which was founded in the 1960s. César Chávez, one of the co-founders of the UFW, designed the flag along with his brother and cousin in 1962. Quite frankly, there is no way they couldn't have been aware of it's resemblance to the National Socialist flag, and the resemblance of the Aztec eagle to the German eagle used in NS symbolism.
UFW flag (top).
Mural of Chávez in Chicano Park. Let's be real, the photo on the left is in every history book, WWII documentary, and film; there's no way the artist couldn't have realized the resemblance.
Photo source:
https://www.thinglink.com/scene/654059395327459329
To go a step even further, the Chicano Movement's use of the term "La Raza" derives from José Vasconcelos's racial idealism. Vasconcelos envisioned the New World as a mixing ground for all of the world's ethnic groups, a process which will allow for the integration of all the noble and high-quality aspects from each ethnic group and allow us to discard all the ignoble and low-quality elements. One of the largest components of this resulting new race would, of course, come from Native American bloodlines. He called the resulting race "La raza cósmica" and his vision was in stark contrast to many other Westernized writers at the time who wanted "La Raza" to refer only to "white" Latinos.
Not surprisingly, Vasconcelos and Hitler shared an admiration for each other's racial idealism--because Hitler also rejected "White" racial identity in favor of racial idealism where QUALITY, not ethnicity or pigmentation, was the most important factor. For more information on how Hitler's racial idealism cared about QUALITY above all and is utterly incompatible with crude Nordicism and Neo-Nazi White Supremacy, refer to the following articles, for a start:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201108090548/http://aryanism.net/politics/white-nationalists/why-race-matters/
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/searching-for-aryan-genes.html
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/what-is-scientific-racism.html
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/revisiting-early-20th-century_11.html
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/p/revisiting-early-20th-century_93.html
Use by the US military, US government, Anglo-Americans, etc.
US military use
In 1920, the 45th Infantry Division was formed. In 1924 the division adopted a gold swastika on a red background as its insignia, inspired by the symbol's use among Native Americans in Oklahoma and the Southwest. By 1939 the swastika was replaced with a Thunderbird symbol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)
***
The 55th Fighter Squadron used a swastika as their squadron emblem from 1930 to 1932. The squadron flew Boeing P-12 (F4B) aircraft, which can be seen below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55th_Fighter_Squadron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:55th_Fighter_Squadron_-_emblem_-_1930-1932.jpg
Photos of the emblem on planes can be found at:
https://www.avionslegendaires.net/avion-militaire/boeing-f4b/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20th-attack-group-p-12s.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ray_Wagner_Collection_Image_(16573921992).jpg
***
In southern New Mexico there are a number of large earthworks or geoglyphs in the shape of swastikas. I've seen random conspiracy websites claim these were related to Native Americans, but they were made during WWII as bombing practice targets. Roswell, New Mexico, had a military airfield from 1941-1967 and many of these practice targets were made in the surrounding desert. Presumably the swastika design was chosen because it was easy to construct and its symmetry gives it a shape somewhat similar to a crosshair.
The Youtuber HuntStache History visited one of these practice targets in February 2021, and you can see the debris from all the bombs that were dropped on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMrJ_0fOkP0
***
US state government use
The Arizona state highway marker in the 1920s-1940s used two symbols associated with Native Americans--the swastika and arrowhead. According to Wikipedia, Arizona used this marker until 1942, although no source/evidence is provided as to the date when it was changed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century#United_States
Arizona state route markers. Date and original source unknown. Reposted photo found on:
https://relicrecord.com/blog/ancient-peaceful-history-swastika/
1927 Arizona state route marker:
https://www.aaroads.com/shields/salespage.php?state=AZ&type=3
***
Other post-1870s use by Anglo-Americans in the USA
The KiMo Theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico, built in 1927 in Pueblo revival architectural style, has swastika designs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KiMo_Theater
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:KiMo_Theater
***
The New Mexico State University yearbook was called "Swastika" from 1907 to 1983. Allegedly, the University also used swastikas on their ROTC patches and elsewhere at the university prior to WWII.
https://contentdm.nmsu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Yearbooks
***
The swastika was also used in numerous advertisements, company logos, generic postcards, architectural ornaments, etc. from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. These are too numerous to list and their recent origin and lack of symbolic meaning make it unnecessary to provide an exhaustive list here.
***
Pre-1870s use of the swastika by Westerners
Here is a rare example of a pre-1800s swastika used by Westerners in the present-day USA.
In 1643, Cornelis Arissen, a Dutch man in New Netherland, gave his signature as a swastika.
John Romeyn Brodhead and E. B. O'Callaghan (eds.) (1856). Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. Volume 1. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, Printers. Page 195.
https://archive.org/details/documentsrelativ01brod/page/194/mode/2up
Canada
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest First Nations ethnic groups in Canada--stretching from New Foundland, to the Great Lakes, to Alberta.
Cree culture saddle, 19th century. Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, Saskatchewan. Photo by Deviantart user Radicaun:
https://www.deviantart.com/radicaun/art/Swastika-Saddle-19th-Century-Cree-497061030
The caption is cut off, but it says "Lebret", which is a city in Saskatchewan where the Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School was located. The school is on land which is now part of the Wa-Pii Moos-toosis (White Calf) Indian Reserve of the Star Blanket Cree Nation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebret
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu%27Appelle_Indian_Residential_School
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Blanket_Cree_Nation
According to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, they have 2 other items with swastikas in their collection--a belt and pair of gloves--although they do not specify if they are Native American artifacts.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060118021210/http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/research/faqs/ex_8.shtml
Labrador Inuit
Nancy Columbia (Columbia Eneutseak) (1893-1959) was an actress and screenwriter. She was born in Chicago, USA, to a mother of Labrador Inuit heritage (originally from Nain, Canada) and an Anglo-Canadian father.
Miss Columbia at the Alaksa-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 1909, wearing a swastika pinned to her clothing.
https://theamericanswastika.tumblr.com/post/44733123516/eskimo-queen-1908
More information on Nancy Columbia (Columbia Eneutseak):
https://www.historylink.org/File/8881
https://www.thetelegram.com/lifestyles/local-lifestyles/nancy-columbia-the-first-inuit-screenwriter-had-ties-to-labrador-406133/
https://web.archive.org/web/20190707133830/http://arcticjournal.ca/featured/nancy-columbia-inuit-star-of-stage-screen-and-camera/
https://www.stlmag.com/history/Flashback-1904-Ice-Queen/
2. Mesoamerica and the Caribbean
Mexico
Maya civilization
The Mayan civilization was located in what is today Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. It fully emerged by 250 AD and the last Mayan city fell to Spanish colonization in 1697.
Figure 261 in The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, shows a swastika on a stone slab from the city of Mayapan. Mayapan was inhabited from around 1000 AD to 1440 AD.
Originally published in the following source:
Augustus Le Plongeon. (April, 1881). Mayapan and Maya Inscriptions. Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Volume 1, Part 2, December 1881, page 245-282. See page 258 for the figure.
https://www.americanantiquarian.org/aasproceedings1881
https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/48003283.pdf
***
In the late 1830s, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood travelled in the Yucatan and "rediscovered" the Mayan civilization. Catherwood made illustrations of many of the ruins, and in 1844 they were turned into lithographs and published.
At the temple complex (teocalli) at Uxmal, swastikas were used as motifs on architectural decorations. Uxmal flourished from approximately 850-1000 AD.
The temple at Uxmal, Mexico, showing certain architectural ornaments with swastikas.
Frederick Catherwood. (1844). Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan. London: Owen Jones. Plate XI: Gateway of the Great Teocallis at Uxmal (see page 16 for description).
https://archive.org/details/viewsancientmon00cath/page/n61/mode/2up
Edited image showing the detail of the curved ornaments with swastikas. Note that the swastikas face in different directions.
Henry Chapman Mercer published a detail of Catherwood's illustration showing the swastikas more clearly:
Henry Chapman Mercer. (1885). The Lenape Stone; Or, The Indian and the Mammoth. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Figure 6, page 26.
https://archive.org/details/lenapestoneorin01mercgoog/page/n52/mode/2up
***
Detail from an illustration in the Codex Cortes 6a. Swastika on a shield(?) Illustration published in Eduard Seler (1908).
Eduard Seler. (1908). Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen Sprach und Alterthumskunde. Berlin: Behrend and Co. Volume 3. Figure 7 (Abb. 7), page 699.
https://archive.org/details/gesammelteabhan04selegoog/page/698/mode/2up
Presumably this is the "Cortés Codex in the National Library at Vienna" mentioned in the following publication? I was unable to find a copy of this codex.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/americas/article/abs/cortes-codex-of-vienna-and-emperor-ferdinand-i/C9A865481BA078614EAB1448DD5019BE
Sonora state coat of arms
In the 1920s Mexican painter Diego Rivera created an unofficial coat of arms for the Mexican state of Sonora. It features a Native American with a large swastika painted on his torso. Culturally, Native Americans in Sonora share strong ties with those in the US Southwest. Rivera (who, ironically, was both Jewish and communist), was one of the prominent artists who were commissioned to make a series of murals and paintings beginning in the 1920s to promote Mexican nationalism. By 1946, it seems Sonora created an official coat of arms, which ended up looking quite different from the one Rivera painted.
Original publication/mural where this image is from is unknown. Photo posted here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/artsenio/9805082373/
Original photo source unknown. I found it reposted here:
https://svasticross.blogspot.com/2010/11/swastika-coat-of-arms-sonora.html
Google translate of Spanish-language Wikipedia:
"Before 1946, Sonora had ambiguous characters on its shield, such as an indigenous person in the position of crucified with his chest covered by a swastika. This appreciation of the painter Marcia Castelo, incomprehensible by the bulk of the population, did not give any clear image of the entity. Also, the shield was not official. It had been designed by the painter Diego Rivera as part of a project to provide each entity of the federation with its own shield, only that he made them from the capital of the country, without knowing Sonora.
The then governor Abelardo L. Rodríguez, entrusted the architect Lasazón, Public Works official of the State government to represent a shield project that was more in accordance with the modern development of Sonora."
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escudo_de_Sonora#Historia
According to the following website, between 1923 and 1928 Rivera oversaw the painting of murals in the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educacion Publica) building in Mexico City, which included the coat of arms for various states.
https://vamonosalbable.blogspot.com/2014/06/diego-rivera-su-relacion-con-los.html
Sonora coat of arms in the Ministry of Public Education building, Mexico City.
As architectural decorations by Westerners
In the region around the state of Yucatán, many colonial-era plantations use the lauburu symbol as architectural decorations on mansions, property markers, etc. This symbol is a variant of the swastika that was used in ancient Celto-Iberian cultures and over the previous centuries has become strongly associated with Basque culture. See the articles below for more information. From the beginning, many Spaniards of Basque ethnicity were involved in the colonization of the New World.
"Basque domination was so complete, that of 47 ships built in Spain between 1615 and 1682, all were built in Basque shipyards. In addition, many of the administrators, officers, and crew were also Basque. Why do we see so few notations of the Basque role in the Age of Discovery?
[...]
Other than Spaniards, more Basques immigrated to the Yucatan Peninsula during the remarkable era of the first two hundred years of colonization than any other group, with the exception of immigrants from the Canary Islands. They were dominant in commercial businesses, import-export trade, the military, the church, and cattle ranching.
Basques like Lorenzo de Evia, who founded Hacienda Uxmal, received large land grants from the Spanish monarchy for their services to the throne. Other Basques used profits from investments and their professional occupations to purchase large blocks of land for ranching. They also built fine colonial houses in Merida, Valladolid, and other early colonial cities.
It was these early Basque immigrants who adorned their door lentils and hacienda gateposts with their beloved lauburus. Many of these symbols can be attributed to the first wave of Basque immigrants or later arrivals in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of the symbols have survived for three centuries, a remarkable testimony to the cultural pride and unity of the Basque people."
Byron Augustin. (2016). Ancient Symbols in the New World, Part I. Yucatan Living.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170725043232/http://yucatanliving.com/history/ancient-symbols-in-the-new-world-part-i
Byron Augustin. (2016). Ancient Symbols in the New World, Part II. Yucatan Living.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170825004430/http://www.yucatanliving.com/history/ancient-symbols-part-ii
Byron Augustin. (2016). Ancient Symbols in the New World, Part III. Yucatan Living.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200813080643/https://yucatanliving.com/history/ancient-symbols-in-the-new-world-part-iii
Part 3 of the articles above unfortunately repeats the falsehood that the Mezine carving is the oldest swastika. Again, it is NOT a swastika. Read the article below to see an examination of the artifact and how its pattern is clearly not a swastika:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-mezine-carving-is-not-swastika.html
***
Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The cathedral was constructed in the mid-1800s and underwent significant reconstruction in the 1920s, which is probably when the floor was installed.
Photos taken by the Flickr user Catedrales e Iglesias.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swastikas_.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltb/8771524831
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swastikas.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltb/8771524121
Lucha libre wrestlers
To provide hype in the ring, wrestlers often adopt a provocative persona and basically become a character in an athletic theater show of sorts. In Mexican lucha libre wrestling, it seems a number of wrestlers have adopted swastikas as part of their character's uniform. The earliest ones, such as "El Nazi" (Ignacio Gómez Ruiz) were, well, inspired by National Socialist use of the swastika. With the increased knowledge of the fact that the swastika is a symbol used by Native Americans and cultures throughout the world for thousands of years, perhaps some present-day wrestlers incorporate it as an indigenous symbol rather than a mere "Nazi" theatric?
Description: "Luchador from Mexico DF", photo submitted by Eliot Shepard to the Tumblr blog TheAmericanSwastika, 2012. Wrestler's name is unknown.
https://theamericanswastika.tumblr.com/post/18152485711/luchador-from-mexico-df-foto-by-eliot-shepard
Further information about swastika use by lucha libre wrestlers:
"El Nazi" (Ignacio Gómez Ruiz).
https://web.archive.org/web/20210923090538/http://luchawiki.org/index.php?title=El_Nazi
"There are also luchadores who perform under names like Destructor Nazi (complete with swastika armband), Robot R2 and Ultraman. "Lucha," Professor Martinez said, "is really an assemblage of a lot of international influences, but the ritual that goes along with it is very Mexican.""[17]
Panama
Kuna (Guna/Cuna)
The Kuna people (also spelled as Guna and Cuna) live in Panama and use a swastika as their national symbol on their flag. In addition, they have characteristic textiles called molas, and swastikas are a common motif.
If you look through pictures taken by travel bloggers in Panama, the Kuna flag can be seen flying all over their province and it is commonly found in murals. Wikipedia shows the flag as a horizontal orange-gold-orange tricolor with the central bar larger than the others. However, most photos from the past few decades show the flag as a horizontal (and, sometimes, vertical) tricolor of red-bright-yellow-red, with each colored bar of equal width. In the 1920s/1930s, the flag was described as a horizontal red-orange-red tricolor with a blue swastika (presumably with the center stripe larger than the outer two).[18][19]
Kuna flag as it is shown on Wikipedia.
In 1903, the US funded Panamanian rebels to declare independence from Colombia, in order for the US to gain control of the future Panama Canal site. Some Kunas remained loyal to Colombia while others wanted an independence separate from Panama. Immediately after independence, the Panamanian government began efforts to Westernize the Kuna people. By 1919, the forced assimilation measures became especially oppressive and even banned the use of molas. To resist these Western attempts to destroy their culture, they engaged in the San Blas Rebellion (or Revolution of Tule) in 1925, which led to successful reversal of the Westernization policies.
During the revolution, the Kuna people adopted a flag with a swastika as their national symbol. According to Wikipedia, in their language they call the swastika "Naa Ukuryaa",[20] although I do not see many internet search results for this term, so who knows if that's accurate. Swedish anthropologist Erland Nordenskiöld (whose work was written as a collaboration with Kuna leadership) wrote that the swastika is called "kīnṓe".[21]
On Wikipedia, it is said (without a citation) that the flag was designed by Waga Ebinkili (Mary Colman). She was the granddaughter of Simral Colman, who was the main leader of the Kuna prior to Nele Kantule. After suceeding Colman as leader in 1927, Nele Kantule's faction of the Kuna continued to maintain their independence and use of the swastika flag.
"The situation worsened until February 12, 1925, in a conference held in Ailigandi, where he met top leaders of 45 villages and tribes. The conference lasted 26 days, proclaiming the Republic of Tule, and fixing territorial limits. This uprising was under a flag was made by Waga Ebinkili (Mary Colman), granddaughter of Chief Simral Colman. It had a rectangular design with stripes. The center was yellow with the upper and lower stripes in red and with a figure of left facing swastika."[18]
Swedish anthropologist Erland Nordenskiöld went to Panama to study the Kuna people in 1927. He received a tremendous amount of information directly from Kuna leader Nele Kantule and Ruben Pérez Kantule--who was sent to Sweden to continue to assist with the research.
"The latest occurrence worthy of note in the history of these Indians was when, in 1925, a considerable section of the tribe, after instituting a massacre on all Panamanians within their territory, proclaimed the independent republic of Tule, whose flag is a blue swastika on orange ground with red borders. This republic is still in existence, and Panama authority does not carry within its territory. [...] The word tule means »man» in the Cuna language, and occasionally one sees this tribe called Tule Indians. For my own part, however, I always heard them call themselves Cuna, or, strange to say, Caribe-Cuna. It is also usual to call them, after the name of the coast they inhabit, San Blas Indians.
Since the revolt of 1925 the Cunas are divided into two large groups, one comprising those who consider themselves independent and whose High Chief is Néle — whom I shall tell of in the following — and those who acknowledge the suzerainty of Panama, under their High Chief Inapaquiña. In addition there are some Cunas living in Colombian territory. Inapaquiña will fly the Panama flag, but allows no Panamanians to settle in his district.
[...]
The independent Cunas are at the present time endeavoring to consolidate their position in every way. They are exceedingly anxious to be considered a civilized people, and they take keen interest in other countries. The circumstance that we, as we shall see, were so well received by them that they actually tried to help us along in our work, was probably to some extent due to their wish that we should make propaganda for their cause.
It is to be hoped that the tenacious struggle that the Cunas for more than four hundred years have been putting up for their liberty will not have been in vain."[22]
"A great deal of face painting is exclusively for decoration, such as painting with caoutchouc mixed with mā́gḗba, and the nose painting among the Cunas in Caimanes. A swastika, kīnṓe, is sometimes painted on the face of men as well as women. This ornamentation Pérez regards exclusively as a decoration."[21]
The following is an excerpt of the history of the Kuna people, as dictated by Nele Kantule.
"And still the Panamanian people keep on lying to us. But we hope that these heavy burdens will not befall us again, because we have already suffered, we have been made degenerate, we have been mutiliated, we have been killed, we have been devastated in every way by the Panamanian people, and yet we have souls which can feel, passions, hopes and desires as every other race in the world. We only wish peace and we want to manage our affairs under our own flag like other races. We have always been peaceful and not a wild people among ourselves and we have since far back had internal peace."[23]
Although, ultimately, lasting independence was not achieved, the Kuna to this day have maintained self-governance to a large degree and continue to use the swastika flag and swastikas as motifs in their textiles.
One of the many images of the Kuna flag you can find flying in Panama. Photo posted on the travel blog SV Moira by Laurence and Susan Shick, 2007.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180824130437/http://www.sv-moira.com/Panama4.htm
Kuna/Cuna mola textile. Obtained by collectors in 1973 from the San Blas Islands, Panama. Catalog number 2007.38.052 in the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College Digital Collections.
https://dcms.beloit.edu/digital/collection/logan/id/4725
Mola purchased around 1960-1970 in the San Blas Islands, donated to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Accession number 2008.726.
http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/14036/
Kuna woman wearing leggings with swastikas. Photo taken by treasurenet forum user joshuaream, 2014.
https://www.treasurenet.com/forums/north-american-indian-artifacts/438137-hohokam-bowl-swastika-symbol-2.html#post4278415
Here are a few of the Kuna swastikas in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution:
Mola from Ailigandi Island, San Blas Islands, Panama. Purchased around 1966-1971. Accession number 326028, USNM number E420182-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8452741
Mola from Ustupo Island, San Blas Islands, Panama. Purchased around 1966-1971. Accession number 326028, USNM number E420733-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8453353
Mola from the Rio Tigre (Tiger River) area of southeast Panama. Gifted to the Smithsonian Museum in 1932. Accession number 119515, USNM number E364247-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8410142
Mola from Mamitupo Island, San Blas Islands, Panama. Purchased around 1966-1971. Accession number 326028, USNM number E420463-0
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8453053
Others with a similar pattern:
Mulatupo Island, San Blas Islands, Panama, ca. 1966-1971. Accession number 326028, USN number E420555-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8453155
Carti-Mulatupo Island, San Blas Islands, Panama, ca. 1966-1971. Accession number 326028, USNM number E420306-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8452879
Mamitupo Island, San Blas Islands, Panama, ca. 1966-1971. Accession number 326028, USNM number E420473-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8453064
As we can see from all these examples, Kuna culture's use of the swastika includes both left and right-facing swastikas, swastikas which are rotated, and different forms of the swastika with different curvature of the arms.
Nicaragua
Nahua culture?
In The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, he cites one example of a swastika from Nicaragua. I tracked down the original publication mentioning this artifact and found an illustration of it.
This artifact was found near Rivas, Nicaragua, prior to 1852. It was published in the book below. It mentions E. G. Squier had obtained the artifact and given it to the Smithsonian Museum. I searched through the Smithsonian's collections and found several Nicaraguan artifacts donated by Squier, but not this particular one.
Ephraim George Squier. (1852). Nicaragua: Its People, Scenery, Monuments, and the Proposed Interoceanic Canal. Volume 2 of 2. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. See page 85-98. Page 93 for the illustration, page 97-98 for description of artifact.
https://archive.org/details/gri_nicaraguaits02squi/page/n125/mode/2up
According to Wikipedia, the Nahua people are by far the largest Native American group in the Rivas province. Also according to Wikipedia, the Nahua people migrated from northwestern Mexico and into Mesoamerica around 500 AD. Could they have brought the swastika with them (through prior contact with Ancestral Puebloan peoples) during this migration?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Indigenous_Organizations#Nicaraguan_Indigenous_Groups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuas
3. South America
Peru
Moche civilization
The Moche civilization was based in Moche, Trujillo, Peru and extended along the northern coast of Peru. It lasted from approximately 100-700 AD.
Pottery in the Huaca Rajada-Sipan Site Museum (Museo de Sitio Huaca Rajada - Sipán) near Sipán, Peru. According to the description on Wikipedia, it dates from the transition between the Moche culture and Sican/Lambayeque culture, ca. 700s AD.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sican-Vessel-in-the-Huaca-Rajada-Site-Museum-001.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaca_Rajada
Reproduction of art, perhaps from the Moche culture (ca. 50-700 AD). In the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum (Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán) in Lambayeque, Peru.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/11767501@N07/2203007204
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lambayeque_art,_Museo_del_se%C3%B1or_de_Sip%C3%A1n,_Per%C3%BA.jpg
Description: "Painted Stirrup Spout Pottery Vessel, Mochica" [Moche] ca. 100-700 AD. Auctioned by Bonhams Skinner. American Indian & Ethnographic Arts - 2291; Lot 16; September 10, 2005.
https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2291/lots/16
Description: "Figurine shield from Moche III (ca 300 CE) in Peru", in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Searching the online collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum only returned 3 Moche items and 20 items tagged as "Peru", none of which were this artifact.
https://www.slam.org/explore-the-collection/
I was unable to find the original book or article this figure appeared in.
Wari/Huari civilization
The Wari/Huari civilization was based in southern Peru and lasted from around 500-1000 AD. It engaged in extensive trade with coastal villages in southern and central Peru, and may have controlled them directly.
Wari/Huari Culture pottery canteen, ca. 500-1000 AD. Item #968 in the collection of CulturalPatina, owned by Dennis Brining of Virginia. Further information on this artifact is unknown.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/472265813/pre-columbian-peru-huariwari-culture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wari_culture
One side of the canteen has a swastika and the other has a swastika where one of the arms is turned the wrong way. I don't think this disqualifies it from being a swastika, as even at Troy, which had hundreds--if not thousands--of swastikas, amateur artists were sometimes sloppy and turned the swastika's arm the wrong way.
Description: "Wari Figural Vessel, possibly Viñaque style South Coast, ca. A.D. 600-1000". Sold by the auction company Sothebys, May 16, 2014. Lot 202, SaleID N09146202. Provenance: "Acquired by the present owner's grandfather prior to 1957".
https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/african-oceanic-n09146/lot.202.html
The auction website indicates this artifact is described in the following publication:
Jose Antonio Lavalle. (1984). Arte y Tesoros del Peru, Huari. Page 160.
Description: "Lambayeque-Huari figural vessel from northern Peru, ca. 1000 AD". Item 857087 in the collection of the art-dealing company Arte Xibalba, based in Sarasota, Florida. Artifact has presumably now been sold and unlisted from the website. Page not archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
http://www.trocadero.com/stores/Wayob/items/857087/item857087.html
Other
Illustration of "earthenware dish Swastika painted design". Purchased in Cuzco by Emilio Montez in 1893. In the collection of the Field Museum. Catalog number 3206.nosub[1]; Accession number 1081.
https://collections-anthropology.fieldmuseum.org/catalogue/1233865
The Field Museum has another Peruvian swastika in their collection, but there is no photo.
Description: "Woven bag. Swastika & other geometric patterns in dull red outlined in brown on dirty yellow." Donated by George A. Dorsey in 1893. Necropolis of Ancon, Peru. Grave 81, Mummy 114. Catalog number: 183803.nosub[1].
https://collections-anthropology.fieldmuseum.org/catalogue/1087641
The necropolis is said to have been used from 8000 BC to 1500 AD and was used by the Chavin, Wari, Chancay, and Inca cultures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancon_(archaeological_site)
Ecuador
Inti Raymi Festival
Inti Raymi is a solstice celebration to honor the Andean sun god Inti, which takes place throughout former Incan nations in June. In an attempt to suppress this celebration, Spanish colonizers tried to replace it with the Feast of San Juan, although they were unsuccessful at making people forget the true meaning of the celebration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inti_Raymi
Each town and region has its own variation of precisely how the festival is celebrated. In Cotacachi, Ecuador, where the photos below were from, it involves a symbolic retaking of the town square from the Spanish by residents of the local communities. In Cusco, Peru, it seems to revolve more around reenactments of Incan royalty and Inti himself.
"You see there is a large church in Cotacachi with the main town plaza directly in front of it. Hundreds of years ago this site was a sacred burial mound for the indigenous, but knowing this the Spaniards leveled the hill and built their Catholic church directly on top. The indigenous were pushed out of town into the surrounding areas and mountainsides and while the separate villages had lived in peace for thousands of years the Spaniards convinced them that they were now enemies.
And so today during the festival of Inti Raymi the 24 surrounding villages march into town to symbolically take back the square. Villages take turns dancing on each of the four corners of the La Matriz Plaza directly in front of the large cathedral."[24]
Caption: "Indians, wearing cardboard hats with swastika symbol, dance during the Inti Raymi (San Juan) festivities on 24 June 2010 in Cotacachi, Ecuador."
https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/indians-wearing-cardboard-hats-with-swastika-symbol-dance-news-photo/171068762
Caption: "An Indian, having the swastika painted over his breast, dances during the Inti Raymi (San Juan) festivities on 29 June 2010 in Cotacachi, Ecuador."
https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/an-indian-having-the-swastika-painted-over-his-breast-news-photo/171068765
Cotacachi, June 29, 2010. Photos by Jan Sochor. Source:
https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/indians-dance-furiously-during-the-inti-raymi-festivities-news-photo/171068871
Collage of swastikas on hats at the Cotacachi Inti Raymi festival, June 29, 2013. Photos taken by Cécile:
https://voyageuz.overblog.com/cotacachi-inti-raymi
The two photos above are collages of swastikas on hats at the Cotacachi Inti Raymi festival, June 24-29, 2017. Photos taken by Barna Tanko:
https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-photo-kichwa-men-wearing-extra-large-hats-inti-raymi-june-cotacachi-ecuador-closeup-indigenous-participating-parade-summer-image97517541
The festival in Cotacachi must attract a lot of tourists, given the large number of photos I've been able to find of it. If anyone knows about swastikas being used at other Inti Raymi festivals, post about it on the discussion page.
Brazil
Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá)
The Huni Kuin people live in the provinces of Acre and southern Amazonas, near the border with Peru. They appear to have avoided significant disruption by Western civilization until the 1890s.[25]
There are a few examples of this culture using a swastika where the intersection of the arms are slightly offset from one another, rather than meeting in the center as perfect cross.
Nilson Tuwe, son of the leader of the Kaxinawá people. Photo by Flickr user lanskymob, 2014.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lanskymob/14546352232/
Tuwe photographed by WBEZ Chicago to discuss “Us and Them”, a film he directed to raise awareness about the exploitation of his people.
https://www.wbez.org/stories/indigenous-filmmaker-explores-issues-of-brazils-indigenous-community-in-new-documentary/082f16c2-7ead-4d38-9b10-c8023cc2a7e1
Description: "Panel produced by Huni Kuin women with the kene of each of the participants of the workshop organized in the Indigenous Land of the Jordão." From the Kaxinawá Indigenous Territory in Rio Jordão, Brazil, 2015. In the collection of the Museu do Índio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
One of the panels in the beadwork piece is the swastika-like symbol above. See below for the full design:
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/huni-kuin-bead-panel/qQHQfgE5Hrn30Q
Note the similarity of this motif with the symbol found at Tiwanaku, Bolivia.
1935-1937 National Socialist ethnological expedition
Before WWII, the National Socialist German government financed a number of ethnological expeditions to regions as far as Brazil and Tibet, in order to learn about and find commonality with "non-white" cultures--further demonstrating the absurdity of claiming NS ideology was obsessed with "white" people. Colonial powers such as Britain and France also financed numerous explorations in the 1800s, but these took place primarily within their own colonial empires, with the goal of better understanding what "resources" were available to exploit within their territorial claims.
During the Brazilian expedition, Joseph Greiner, a Brazilian of German heritage, died from illness. He was buried with a large grave-marker with a swastika in a cemetery near Laranjal do Jari, Brazil. The grave-marker was carved with raised letters. In the photo below, the letters may have originally been surrounded with white paint or the original photo may have been edited in order to provide contrast and make the words legible.
"In the 1930s, a zoologist used funds from the Nazi regime to travel through the Brazilian Amazon. The expedition inspired a movie, a book and left behind a massive cross with a swastika in the jungle.
"Mr. Schulz-Kampfhenkel is a brilliant example of the modern generation. He is in his twenties, speaks various languages, has a biography marked by triumphs and has already made a name for himself in the European science community."
This is how the Rio de Janeiro newspaper Gazeta de Noticias described Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel on August 9, 1935. The young, German zoologist and geographer was about to embark on his expedition through the Brazilian Amazon.
[...]
From September 1935 to March 1937, Schulz-Kampfhenkel traveled with the aviator Gerd Kahle, the engineer Gerhard Krause and the German-Brazilian Joseph Greiner. Twenty-one local assistants not only showed the foreigners the route, but they also established contact with indigenous communities and collected information about the region's fauna, geography and ethnography.
The expedition spread cultural propaganda, according to André Felipe Cândido da Silva, a historian with the scientific research foundation Oswaldo Cruz. That is because it happened at a time when Germans, Americans and the French were fighting to influence the Brazilian government and intellectuals.
"The trip continued to bring together Brazil and Germany on a diplomatic, commercial, military and also scientific level," said Silva.
[...]
...He found 1,200 ethnographic objects from the Aparai, Wayana and Wajãpi indigenous communities, took more than 2,500 photographs and filmed more than 2,700 meters of 16mm film.
He gave the majority of this material to Berlin's Ethnographic Museum and its Museum of Natural History.
In turn, the Amazon inherited a massive wooden cross with a swastika, which was placed on Greiner's burial site at the shores of the Jari River. The German-Brazilian died of malaria in the early stages of the journey, on January 2, 1936."
Source:
https://www.dw.com/en/how-the-amazon-became-popular-in-the-third-reich/a-52835851
Some more photos of the expedition can be seen below:
https://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/amazonas-expedition-1935-fotostrecke-107829.html
Google translation of part of an article from Der Spiegel, by Jens Glüsing, who wrote a book on the expedition. I've seen some English-language articles claim Glüsing "rediscovered" Greiner's gravemarker, but clearly this cemetery is still in use and Glüsing makes no claims of "rediscovering" it in his article.
"Deep in the jungle of the Brazilian Amazon, on a river island of the Rio Jary, there is a wooden cross about three meters high. It bears the inscription: "Joseph Greiner died here on January 2nd, 1936, feverishly in the service of German research". Engraved above the name clearly visible: a swastika.
Motorboats bring day trippers and tourists in two hours from Laranjal do Jari, a gold digger shop on the upper reaches of the Rio Jary, to the "Nazi cemetery", as local residents call the place. Greiner's cross towers over the many simple graves of the Joãos and Josés from the nearby village of Santo Antonio, who were buried here. The tomb is a local tourist attraction, but nobody in the area knows its history.
Nobody knows who built the tiled roof over the cross; Nobody remembers who exchanged the white board with the swastika, which can be seen in historical photos, for an engraving. Wild legends surround the mysterious grave, which has now even found its way into shaky videos on YouTube. "Hitler was here," asserts the village teacher from Santo Antonio with a deeply serious expression.
[...]
Schulz-Kampfhenkel developed a new method for analyzing aerial photographs on Jary, which he refined for military purposes during the war.
[...]
All three fell ill with malaria, Schulz-Kampfhenkel also suffered severe diphtheria that almost cost him his life, but only foreman Greiner died of a "fever".
[...]
But in 1943 Schulz-Kampfhenkel was brought back to Germany, and the research team was now devoted to aerial reconnaissance in Eastern Europe, Greece and the Baltic States. After the war ended, the Americans arrested him and interned him in a prisoner-of-war camp near Salzburg. During interrogation by American security officers, Schulz-Kampfhenkel immediately offered to put his research work in the service of the Americans - this emerges from secret FBI documents that are stored in the National Archive in Washington and that were only released in 2006.
But the Americans had no use for him, Schulz-Kampfhenkel was dismissed and later denazified. In 1956 his expedition report "Rätsel der Urwaldhölle" appeared in a denazified version. He processed a large part of his rescued film recordings from the Jary expedition into short educational films, which he, now based in Hamburg, distributed through his Institute for World Studies in Education and Research. At the same time, he made nature films about the Wadden Sea and documentaries about the struggle for independence in West Africa.
[...]
Schulz-Kampfhenkel died in 1989. Shortly before, he had performed at an Amazon symposium in Berlin. He raved in front of fellow researchers: He would like to return to his Indians in the Amazon rainforest.
[...]
The head of the national park "Montanhas do Tumucumaque", the largest tropical rainforest reserve in the world, to which the Rio Jary belongs, is the native German Christoph Jaster, who studied forestry in Göttingen. Three years ago he started an expedition in the footsteps of Schulz-Kampfhenkel. Deep in the jungle, he discovered a landmark from 1936 - besides Greiner's grave, it is probably the only remnant of the expedition ..."
Current view of the grave marker with the white color photoshopped on. Photo taken by Lúcio Costa Leite for the New York Times.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190213005712/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/world/what-in-the-world/brazil-nazi-grave-amazon.html
Bolivia
Tiwanaku civilization
The Tiwanaku/Tiahuanaco civilization was based in the city of Tiwanaku in present-day Bolivia. It lasted from approximately 600-1000 AD and spanned from southern Peru, western Bolivia, and northern Chile.
Swastika-like symbol, presumably from Tiwanaku, Bolivia.
The city was first occupied around 300 BC and continued to be inhabited for over a millennium. Arthur Posnansky was an archaeologist who specialized in Andean archaeology. He published Tihuanacu, the Cradle of American Man in 1945. Subsequent archaeological studies have shown his estimates of Tiwanaku's age were dramatically incorrect.
I don't know what year or publisher the printing in the image is, nor do I have further information on which artifact this symbol was found.
Note this symbol's resemblance to the Huni Kuin symbol in the 3rd image in that subsection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Posnansky
Additional image of the swastika-like symbol from Tiwanaku. Presumably this is the same artifact from Posnansky's illustration.
Zelia Nuttall. (1901). The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Researched Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological and Calendrical Systems. Cambridge: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Figure 49, page 166/602.
https://archive.org/details/fundamentalprinc00nutt/page/166/mode/2up
"What is more, on the fragment of a finely carved hollow stone object, which is preserved at the British Museum and was found at Tiahuanaco by Mr. Richard Inwards, there are the finest representations of the swastika which have as yet been found on the American Continent, and each of its branches terminates in a tiger’s head, resembling those sculptured on the monolithic doorway. The fragment consists of the half of what seems to me to have been the top or handle of a staff or sceptre. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. C. H. Read of the British Museum, for a rubbing of the carved fragment and for the permission to reproduce it here (fig. 49). The central swastika is angular and its form recalls that of the Mexican Calendar swastika (fig. 9). At each side of it are portions of what originally were two rounded swastikas, which also terminate in tigers’ heads. These and the size of the fragment seem to justify the inference that another square swastika was originally sculptured on the opposite side, making two rounded and two square swastikas in all." -Zelia Nuttall (1901).
I did not see this artifac tin the British Museum's online collections when searching for "Tiwanaku" or "Tiahuanaco".
Colombia?
Soccer fan with swastika outfit
There is an image of a gentleman dressed as a "nazi weed pope" standing among Colombian fans during a soccer match. It was taken by photographer Jaime Saldarriaga for Reuters on November 15, 2011 at the 2014 World Cup qualifying match, which took place between Colombia and Argentina in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Original source:
https://stock.adobe.com/152854452
This photo seems to have gone viral in 2014, during the World Cup. The earliest reference to it I could find is a Twitter post by Peter Guy (@Getintothis) on June 20, 2014.
"Ever so slightly worse than dressing up as a Crusader holding a spitfire, the Colombian swastika weed Bishop."
The photo went viral with most people calling him the "Nazi Weed Pope", a title which was solidified by an article published in The Guardian on July 14, 2014.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/14/world-cup-2014-strangest-saddest-funniest-moments
The meaning of his outfit is unknown. Is the outfit meant to be edgy and provocative? The pictures of cannabis perhaps suggest this. The swastika can be seen in use by present-day Ecuadorians in the Inti Raymi festival (see photos above), so perhaps it is intended to represent the triumph of indigenous symbolism over Western civilization by making a mockery of the Catholic priest outfit? We can only hope.
Chile
Mapuche
Present-day Mapuche people with drums with four, five, and six-armed sun symbols. Cautín Province, Chile. Photos by Martin Thomas Photography. Note the similarity to the symbols from Peru.
If you look up more photos, you can see designs with 4, 5, 6, 7, or more arms. It is not clear if the four-armed symbol has a specific meaning or if it is just considered one variation among many.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinthomas1/2334562828/in/faves-28772513@N07/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinthomas1/2334561902/in/faves-28772513@N07/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinthomas1/2334562122/in/faves-28772513@N07/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinthomas1/2334563402/in/faves-28772513@N07/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinthomas1/2334563212/in/faves-28772513@N07/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinthomas1/2333740369/in/faves-28772513@N07/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/penalolen/3650439273/in/faves-28772513@N07/
Original photo of the following reupload appears to have been deleted from Flickr. (See the first column, third row to the bottom):
https://web.archive.org/web/20190915055703/http://swastikaphobia.weebly.com/native-american.html
4. Unconfirmed Swastikas
In The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson, he cites a number of instances of the swastika in different Native American groups, but does not always provide illustrations of the artifacts. I consider the excerpts below to be reputable enough to include in this article, even without illustrations.
***
Kickapoo, Pottawatomie, and Iowa
"Miss Mary A. Owen, of St. Joseph, Mo., sending some specimens of beadwork of the Indians (pl. 15) from the Kansas Reservation...writes, February 2, 1895, as follows:
The Indians call it [the Swastika] the “luck,” or “good luck.” It is used in necklaces and garters by the sun worshippers among the Kickapoos, Sacs, Pottawatomies, Iowas, and (I have been told) by the Winnebagoes. I have never seen it on a Winnebago. [...]"
"Letter from Miss Owen, St. Joseph, Mo., January 2, 1897:
There is an old Kickapoo Indian, named Squash, on the Jackson reservation (Kansas) who has a silver brooch almost as large as a soup plate with the swastika cut on it."
See a previous section of this page for the images of the Sac swastikas Owen sent to Wilson. See Figure 214 and 215 in the last part of this section for examples of what I presume are a large brooches with swastikas on them. Also see the previous section on the Potawatomi culture, which has an image of a Potawatomi woman wearing a swastika headband.
***
Lengua
Another excerpt from The Swastika (1898), by Thomas Wilson. This seems credible enough to include here, since Schliemann vouched for it. However, we would still need a photo of the artifact to confirm it is indeed a swastika.
"Dr. Schliemann reports that a traveler of the Berlin Ethnological Museum obtained a pumpkin bottle from the tribe of Lenguas in Paraguay which bore the imprint of the Swastika scratched upon its surface, and that he had recently sent it to the Royal Museum at Berlin."
See:
Heinrich Schliemann. (1884). Troja: Results of the Latest Researches and Discoveries on the Sites of Homer's Troy. New York: Harper and Brothers. Page 122.
https://archive.org/details/trojaresultsofla00schl/page/122/mode/2up
Searching for "Lenguas", "Lengua", and "Paraguay" in the SMB Digital database for the Berlin State Museums does not seem to show this artifact. Both the Altes Museum (formerly the Royal Museum) and the Berlin Ethnological Museum are part of the Berlin State Museums system.
https://www.smb.museum/en/research/online-catalogues-database/
https://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&lang=en
***
Omaha and Sioux
"Miss Alice C. Fletcher informs me that these symbols are still in use among the Omahas and Sioux as the sun and four-wind signs."
Charles Clark Willoughby. (January - March 1897). An Analysis of the decorations upon Pottery from the Mississippi Valley. Journal of American Folk-Lore, 10(36): 9-20. Page 10.
https://archive.org/details/prehistoricarto00uphagoog/page/n519/mode/2up
***
Wasco-Wishram
Items in the collection of the Maryhill Museum of Art, Maryhill, Washington. Photo by Jeff Hart.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ipeguy/6117568183/
Someone in the Flickr comments says these artifacts were made by the Wasco-Wishram people, who are a Chinookan ethnic group in Oregon and Washington, USA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasco-Wishram
***
Canada Great Lakes region
Frances Anne Hopkins (1838-1919) was a British painter who married a Hudson's Bay Company employee. She accompanied him on a number of trips in the Canadian Great Lakes region from 1858 to 1869, allowing her to sketch, and later paint, various scenes from the region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Anne_Hopkins
At least two of her paintings feature a canoe with a swastika-like symbol painted on it. The symbol is quite similar to the lauburu symbol found in Celto-Iberian cultures (and today commonly used by the Basques). Although given her first-hand experience on trading expeditions, we may assume it is an authentic Native American symbol.
Canoe Manned by Voyageurs Passing a Waterfall (1869).
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E2%80%9CCanoe_Manned_by_Voyageurs_Passing_a_Waterfall%E2%80%9D_by_Frances_Anne_Hopkins_%C2%AB_Voyageurs_en_canot_passant_devant_une_cascade_%C2%BB_par_Frances_Anne_Hopkins_(41994620880).jpg
Shooting the Rapids (Quebec) (1879).
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E2%80%9CShooting_the_Rapids%E2%80%9D_by_Frances_Anne_Hopkins_%C2%AB_Descente_des_rapides_%C2%BB_par_Frances_Anne_Hopkins_(41994620490).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shooting_the_Rapids.jpg
5. Other Unconfirmed and Unknown Swastikas
This section contains swastikas without a specific cultural attribution or without a reputable source.
***
Artifact from unspecified Northeastern USA culture
Description: "Loom-beaded necklace with design of swastika symbols and diamond pattern on dark blue ground in white, red, and green." Culture is unknown, but the museum description says Northeastern USA. Catalog number 08820 in the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College Digital Collections.
https://dcms.beloit.edu/digital/collection/logan/id/4969
***
Artifact from unspecified "Plains Indians" culture
Drum with swastika, from one of the North American Plains cultures. Gifted to the Smithsonian Institution in 1931. Accession number number 113605, USNM number E360127-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8406908
***
Artifact from unspecified Pacific Northwest USA culture
Basket, Pacific Northwest, USA. Donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1939. Accession number 153865, USNM number E379790-0.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8415614
***
Artifact from unspecified US Southwest culture
Ceramic pitcher with swastika. Southwest region, USA. Catalog number YPM ANT 242540 in the Yale Peabody Museum.
https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-242540
***
Makah or Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka)
Basket, collected between 1887 and 1930. Precise location and culture unknown. Perhaps from the Makah nation in the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA; or Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) nation in western Vancouver Island, Canada.
In the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, accession number 2058745, USNM number E432835-0. The description suggests Pacific Northwest cultures only began to use the swastika when it became popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_10363434
***
Unconfirmed Mississippian culture artifacts
Description: "Mississippian swastika engraved in a conch shell". I am unable to find more information on this artifact.
Note the similarity to the Mississippian artifact (Thomas Wilson's Fig. 237) shown in the section on Mississippian artifacts.
Description: "Mississippian swastika depicted in the back of an underwater panther’s head". I am unable to find more information on this artifact.
Both images above were both posted in the following Quora thread:
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Swastika-a-Native-American-symbol-If-so-why
***
I say "allegedly" on the artifacts below because they are Pinterest reuploads of Ebay pages or other websites which are now expired. There is no way of knowing if the Ebay seller had an accurate caption or if the Pinterest reuploader even uploaded the correct information. I include these images anyway, because perhaps by including them here someone will see them and be able to provide additional information.
Hupa, Yurok, or Karok
Allegedly a Hupa, Yurok, or Karok culture basket from northern California, ca. 1900. I can't find more information on this artifact.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4503668355303009/
***
Maidu
Allegedly a Maidu culture basket from northern California. I can't find more information on this artifact.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4503668353483352/
***
Artifact from unspecified "Plains Indians" culture
Allegedly a "Antique Native American Plains Indian Beaded Necklace/Sash". I can't find more information on this artifact.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4503668354649316/
***
Unconfirmed Nez Perce (Nimíipuu) artifact
Allegedly Nez Perce culture, ca. 1930-1940. I can't find additional info on this artifact.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4503668352709092/
***
Unconfirmed Skokomish (Coast Salish) artifact
Allegedly a "Pre-conquest Coast Salish spindle whorl. Maple, with whirling directions and beavers." I can't find further information on this artifact.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490118371938600133/
See previous section for examples of swastikas on Skokomish (Coast Salish) art.
More broadly, cultures under the label Salish originally spanned the Pacific Northwest area of the US and Canada. In Canada, especially, they are noted for their skill at weaving and the designs on their spindle whorls--some of which have patterns arranged in four-fold symmetry superficially resembling swastikas.
***
Unknown Native American ceramic
Painted ceramic. Claimed to be Native American.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/15129348721697446/
***
Unknown Native American(?) jewelry
This image was found reuploaded to Pinterest and directs to a webpage which is 404'd and not saved on the Wayback Machine.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/262616222001671556/
https://www.garlandsjewelry.com/products/thunderbird-and-whirling-log-cuff
During the early 1900s, in addition to pottery and textiles, mail-order catalogs selling Southwestern Native American-style designs also included jewelry. The companies started by "white" businessman Fred Harvey and others were influential in selling Native American-style jewelry and silver spoons during this time period, so, unlike the "Navajo blankets", this ring may not have actually been produced by a Native American craftsman. Nevertheless, it demonstrates that no one believed that simply rotating a swastika somehow made it lose its character as a Native American symbol.
***
Teotihuacan
Designs allegedly found at the ancient city of Teotihuacan, nearby present-day Mexico City.
The area around Teotihuacan was inhabited starting from around 600 BC, with the city declining after 750 AD. I am unable to find more information on this or the original publication these illustrations were published in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan
***
"Mexican" hieroglyph from unspecified culture
Figure 29 in Hein (1891), of a "Mexican hieroglyph for the word year". Original source unspecified.
Alois Raimund Hein. (1891). Mäander, Kreuze, Hakenkreuze und Urmotivische Wirbelornamente in Amerika. Ein Beitrag zur allgemeinen Ornamentgeschichte. Wien: Alfred Hölder. Figure 29, page 46.
https://archive.org/details/mhaanderkreuze00heinrich/page/46/mode/2up
"Eine einfache Wirbelzeichnung, welche man als ein in einen Kreis eingeschriebenes Tetraskele oder als ein Hakenkreuz mit gekrümmten in die Kreisperipherie auslaufenden Armen bezeichnen kann, ist die mexikanische Symboltype für den Begriff „Jahr" (Fig. 29). Das mexikanische Tagessymbol ist ein Radkreuz."
"A simple vortex drawing, which may be described as a tetraskeleton inscribed in a circle, or as a swastika with curved arms ending in the periphery of the circle, is the Mexican symbol type for the term "year" (Fig. 29). The Mexican day symbol is a wheel cross."
***
Cerro de la Máscara petroglyph
Swastika-like tetraskelion petroglyph said to be from Cerro de la Máscara near Ocolome, Sinaloa, Mexico. Original source unknown.
***
Tarascan state (Purépecha Empire)
The Tarascan state (or Purépecha Empire) existed from around 1300-1530 AD in central Mexico, mostly encompassing the state of Michoacán. I haven't found any photos of artifacts to confirm this description.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pur%C3%A9pecha_Empire
"The Tarascan remains (Pl. XVII, 2-6) which are found in numbers from Lake Pazcuaro to Lake Chapala, bear a close resemblance to the fragments from the lowest strata of the valley. [...] Bowls with incised bottoms, to serve as graters, are common, and the incised lines are sometimes arranged swastika-wise, a feature found again in Cuicatlan pottery."
Thomas Athol Joyce. (1914). Mexican Archaeology; an introduction to the archaeology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish America. Chapter 7, Mexico: Architectural Remains and Pottery. Page 189.
https://archive.org/details/mexicanarchaeolo00joycuoft/page/n239/mode/2up
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Mexican_Arch%C3%A6ology/Chapter_7
The photos in plate XVII are not of the swastika-like designs.
***
Pedra Pintada rock art(?)
The blog SvastiCross posted the following image and description, allegedly of the Pedra Pintada rock art in the state of Roraima, Brazil.
"According to Prof. Marcel F. Homet this petroglyph is named by the native Brazilian people the ‘SONS OF THE SUN’.
These symbols are engraved in brazilian megalithic stone in Pedra Pintada, northern Amazon River basin of Brazil, discovered in 1963 by the french archaeologist Prof. Marcel F. Homet.
The petr0glyphs are estimated to be at least 10,000-years-old."
https://svasticross.blogspot.com/2015/01/swastika-pedra-pintada.html
Marcel Homet's work on Brazil appears to be largely pseudo-archaeology with wild claims, and I am unable to find much more information on this specific piece of rock art.
I will leave this as unverified for now.
Wikipedia states the following:
During a study and excavations taking place between 1985 and 1987, Brazilian archaeologists came to the conclusion that the site has been inhabited since 2000 BC.[2]
[2] Ribeiro, Pedro A. Mentz et al. "Projeto Arqueológico de Salvamento no Territorio Federal de Roraima" (1986, 1987 1989) Cepa (Santa Cruz do Sul) 13 (16): 5-48; 14 (17): 1-81; 16 (19): 5-48-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedra_Pintada,_Roraima
Just because the oldest occupation at the site is 2000 BC doesn't mean the swastika is that old.
According to Wikipedia, the Caverna da Pedra Pintada in the state of Pará, Brazil was used by humans dating back 11,200 years. Perhaps this is why the SvastiCross blog gave such an ancient date.
If you know anything about this swastika, feel free to leave a comment on this page's discussion post:
https://aryan-anthropology.blogspot.com/2021/04/native-american-swastikas-discussion.html
***
Unspecified Brazilian ossuary
A swastika was allegedly found in an unspecified ossuary in Brazil.
"而在南美巴西出土的一個古印弟安遺骨甕上，也描繪了狀似喜悅的人形，兩側裝飾著卍字符的圖案。"
"An ancient Yindi’an ossuary unearthed in Brazil, South America, also depicts a joyous human figure, decorated with swastika characters on both sides."
https://web.archive.org/web/20090425072627/http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/9/4/22/n2502980.htm
"Yindi'an" is a transliteration for the Chinese word for "Indian" (Native American):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8D%B0%E5%9C%B0%E5%AE%89#Chinese
The Epoch Times is in essence a far-right propaganda/conspiracy outlet of Falun Gong, a cult persecuted by China. So who knows how accurate this information is. The article was published in 2009, so perhaps it related to an archaeological discovery which had occurred recently?
***
Additional unknown photos with no information
Additional unknown photos (presumably from the US/North America).
6. Swastika-like and other symbols
Similar symbols which have four-fold rotational symmetry or are related symbols to the swastika. I did not intentionally search for other types of symbols (such as tetraskelions) while making this article. However, I figured I would include a few that I came across.
***
Four-fold whorls
Puebloan ceramic ladle, in the collection of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Image from the following webpage:
https://www.penn.museum/blog/museum/teaching-with-objects-in-anth-128-peopling-prehistory-archaeology-of-native-north-america/
The artifact might be object number 29-79-8, URL identifier 83789. Collected in 1901 from northeast Arizona.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/83789
Or object number 29-77-387, URL identifier 333600. Pueblo II period (900-1150 AD). Collected in 1901 from northeast Arizona.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/333600
The museum has a number of other ladles with similar patterns whorl patterns:
Object number NA2204.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/136547
Object number 23160.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/278299
Object number 23148.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/46184
Object number 29-79-169.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/307364
Object number 29-78-720.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/340078
***
Two conjoined S-shapes
Superficially, these may look like a swastika at first glance, but actually examining the shape we can see it is two S shapes which are stuck together and not an actual swastika.
Tiwanaku culture four-cornered hat, ca. 600-800 AD. Accession number 1994.35.161 in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316981
Note how some of the S shapes have one half of their spiral colored a different color, or have the negative space in one quadrant colored a different color. This suggests the symbols are not a cohesive unit, as is the case in a swastika.
Tiwanaku culture four-cornered hat, ca. 600-800 AD. Accession number 1994.35.162 in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316982
***
Tetraskelions
The triskelion is a spiral with three "legs" or "arms". It originated in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, and is often found in cultures using the swastika. It has rotational symmetry similar to a swastika and three-legged triskelions sometimes get mistaken for swastikas by individuals who don't recognize the symbols.
A tetraskelion is a variant of the triskelion with four legs, giving it an appearance similar to a swastika. In the strict sense, I believe the tetraskelion is a distinct motif which should be considered a variant of the triskelion, rather than a swastika. The most notable different between a tetraskelion and a swastika is that the center of a swastika is two crossing lines, while the center of a tetraskelion is a "chunky-looking" empty space.
The description on the Pinterest page says "Mattocks Ruin / Zim Collection / at Beloit /Logan LMA 9290 Native American Design". The link on this Pinterest page directs to Beloit College digital collections, but it does not direct to the artifact. After searching the collection for "bowl", "Mimbres", "Southwest", "Mattocks", and "Zim", I don't see it.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/15621929927230461/
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8f/17/f2/8f17f215fe2dfc0c2e69037478c7ca04.jpg
Description: "Late Mississippian incised marine-shell-effigy, bowl, ceramic, ca. 1350-1500 AD." Museum collection or further information is not provided.
https://www.chegg.com/flashcards/turtles-back-c5d61f26-9206-4d31-8ed3-a008ead98f57/deck
Ancestral Puebloan Little Colorado White Ware bowl, ca. 1050-1150 AD. Object number 667-17-2759 in the California State Parks Museum collections.
http://www.museumcollections.parks.ca.gov/code/emuseum.asp?collectionname=A%20Thousand%20Years%20of%20Southwestern%20Pottery&style=single&searchdesc=A%20Thousand%20Years%20of%20Southwestern%20Pottery¤trecord=16
Puebloan ceramic ladle, ca. 1050-1150 AD. In the collection of the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Object number 29-77-358, URL identifier 31045. Collected in 1901 from northeast Arizona.
https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/31045
Textile. Peru, possibly the central coast region, ca. 900-1500 AD. Accession number 28.171.11 in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/307948
***
Spirals
Hohokam bowl with tetraskelion-like symbol. From Gila River, Arizona, ca. 900-1100 AD. In the collection of Cisco's Gallery, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/782800821/prehistoric-hohokam-bowl
https://i.etsystatic.com/11374652/r/il/3c1e1c/2255545873/il_3500xN.2255545873_jw67.jpg
Coconino Red-on-buff ware, Sinagua culture, Arizona, ca. 1050-1150 AD. Image from the American Southwest Virtual Museum Image Galleries, Northern Arizona University.
https://swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu/wp/index.php/artifacts/pottery/coconino-buff-ware/coconino-red-on-buff/
https://swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu/photos/picture.php?/275/category/287
This pattern is similar, but it seems it is merely a set of four joined meanders, rather than an intentional tetraskelion (note that the white space in each of the "lobes" does not connect).
***
Four-fold arrangement of bird motifs
Description: "7N Salado Pinto Black-on-Red bowl with parrots painted in the bottom", ca. 1280-1330 AD. Imagine from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160411173931/http://rarepottery.info/protect/saladopintoblackred.htm
Ancestral Hopi bowl, Homol´ovi, Navajo County, Arizona, ca. 1300s AD. In the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, purchased by the museum in 1916. Catalog number 5/609, barcode 050609.000.
https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:NMAI_54773
https://nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/southwest/050609.html
These remind me somewhat of certain four-fold designs found on ancient Mesopotamian pottery, which also used the swastika as a common symbol. I am not suggesting the designs above are derived from Mesopotamian designs, of course.
***
Four triangles arranged in a swastika-like pattern
This type of symbol can be found in a variety of cultures around the globe. For example, in mediaeval heraldry, this symbol was called a gyronny.
Acoma pottery canteen, ca. 1970s. Item #1370 in the collection of CulturalPatina, owned by Dennis Brining of Virginia.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/626046116/native-american-vintage-acoma-poly
Nez Perce cornhusk bag. In the collection of the Nez Perce National Historical Park Museum, Spalding, Idaho. Catalog number NEPE 1926.
https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/nepe/exb/dailylife/GenderRoles/NEPE1926(Back)_Bag.html
See other examples of this symbol:
Description: "14 Acoma. Storage Jar, 1920s." Swastika-like symbol. Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. In the collection of the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190504062225/http://fidella.com/photojournals/Pottery2017/index1.html
Regional Museum of Ica (Museo regional de Ica), Peru. Wari ceramics, photos by Michael Palomino.
http://www.southamtrips.com/am-sur/peru/Ica/museo-regional-de-Ica/ENGL/05-01-Wari-culture-ceramics.html
***
Sunwheel or Black Sun-like symbol
Quechan (Yuma) bowl with sunwheel or Black Sun-like symbol. Date unknown, ca. 1800s-1900s. Photo from the website RarePotteryInfo.
https://web.archive.org/web/20161107020354/http://rarepottery.info/protect/YumanPottery.htm
***
Passamaquoddy and Wampanoag symbol
In addition to the swastika, the Passamaquody nation uses another symbol, which resembles the wolfsangel symbol which was commonly used as a symbol in National Socialist military divisions in WWII. Some variants of the Passamaquody version of this symbol have small hooks on the ends of the horizontal line, making it somewhat resemble a swastika. Considering William Neptune, the leader of the Passamaquoddy nation in the early 1900s, and other nearby Native American cultures have been photographed wearing "standard" swastikas, the Passamaquody wolfsangel should be considered a distinct symbol.
To give one example of this symbol, Moses Neptune, the son of William Neptune,[26] served in the US military during WWI in the same company as 8 other Passamaquoddy. These soldiers carved a canoe with this symbol at an old quarry in the Argonne Forest in France during WWI.
Passamaquoddy symbol carved into a mine in the Argonne Forest. Photo by Jeff Gusky. Source of the image is the Smithsonian Channel documentary below:
Smithsonian Channel. "What Do Native American Carvings in French WWI Quarries Mean?". March 10, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJEuQ1BR2A
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/video/show/3437460/54318
Donald Soctomah, a Passamaquoddy historian, says they have used this symbol for thousands of years. He also says headdresses with large feathers are not a customary Passamaquody style, but became popular in the early 1900s due to "Wild West" entertainment shows featuring primarily plains cultures, such as the Sioux.
This symbol can also be seen on the headbands of several Mashpee Wampanoag citizens from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in a 1929 photo:
Photo in the Leslie Jones Collection, Boston Public Library.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6378433417/in/album-72157628085309273/
***
So-called "Aztec swastika"
It appears this image is the origin of the so-called "Aztec Swastika" seen on many swastika charts floating around the internet. I am unable to find any information on it. It is perhaps a modern drawing in a style inspired by Mesoamerican art, rather than a copy of a specific ancient artifact?
The symbol itself is actually a form of tetraskelion rather than swastika.
Additionally, there is nothing exclusively Aztec or Mesoamerican about this symbol. For example, it appears on ancient Greek coins and is considered a variant of the labyrinth symbol in this context.
https://www.mintageworld.com/media/detail/4244-labyrinth-on-knossos-coins/
***
Mississippian culture serpent motif
Design found on an artifact from Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma, ca. 900-1450 AD.
I have seen many people on the internet call this a swastika. Despite its rotational symmetry, it is too complex to genuinely be considered a swastika. According to the following websites this artifact is described in the following publication:
Henry W. Hamilton. (1952). The Spiro Mound. Missouri Archaeologist, 14. Page 70, plate 111.
https://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/SpiroWingedSerpent.html
https://www.museum.state.il.us/RiverWeb/landings/Ambot/prehistory/archives/images/art/pages/ptartsnakex.html
***
Mesoamerican calendars
Strictly speaking, these are too complex to be considered swastikas. However, that does not stop people on the internet from referring to them as such.
Codex Tovar (JCB Manuscripts Codex Ind 2) (ca. 1585-1588), page 142, entitled "The Aztec Tonalpohualli Calendar".
https://www.wdl.org/en/item/6732/
Diego Durán. (ca. 1579). Historia de las Indias de Nueva España y Islas de Tierra Firme. Page 318 in the manuscript in the collection of Biblioteca Nacional de España (Vitr/26/11).
https://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000169486&page=324
Published as Trato. 3, Lama. 1, Capo. 1 (Treatise 3, Plate 1, Chapter 1) in the "Atlas" of the multi-volume edition published by José F. Ramirez (1867):
https://archive.org/details/gri_33125012784209/page/n91/mode/2up
"The manuscript is divided into three treatises, the first corresponds to the History of the Indies of New Spain (1581); the second is a Book of the rites and ceremonies in the festivals of the gods and their celebration (1570), and the last deals with the ancient Calendar (1579)."
Highly simplified version of Durán's illustration (above), exaggerating the swastika-like design, published in:
Alois Raimund Hein. (1891). Mäander, Kreuze, Hakenkreuze und Urmotivische Wirbelornamente in Amerika. Ein Beitrag zur allgemeinen Ornamentgeschichte. Wien: Alfred Hölder. Figure 30, page 47.
https://archive.org/details/mhaanderkreuze00heinrich/page/46/mode/2up
Hein's figure is derived from:
Daniel G. Brinton. (1890). Essays of an Americanist. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates. Figure 21, page 160.
https://archive.org/details/cu31924027052574/page/n161/mode/2up
Note that the calendar was also represented as a circle in a different work:
Ramírez Codex (Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia, MNA 35-100) (ca. 1583-1587), plates 29 and 30.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:C%C3%B3dice_Ram%C3%ADrez_29_and_30.jpg
Codex Vaticanus B (Codex Vaticanus 3773) (ca. 1500s), page 73:
https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.lat.3773/0074
Codex Borgia (ca. 1500s), page 72:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Borgia#Section_25_The_20_'weeks',_the_quarters_of_the_universe_and_the_centre
7. Index of Names and Meanings of the Swastika
The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit language and its etymology reveals a meaning specific to the ancient Sanskrit-speaking Vedic culture of India. The fact that the word we use for this symbol is so culture-specific (rather than a general geometric term, such as hooked cross) has unfortunately led many to believe that the Vedic interpretation of the symbol is somehow the most correct or original.
The Vedic culture was far from the first to use the swastika, and their conception of its meaning is far from universal. Different cultures have different names for the swastika, attribute different meanings to it, and it's likely the meaning has changed throughout time within particular cultures.
Now that we have collected various images of swastikas, we begin the difficult task of attempting to compile the names and meanings Native American cultures give this symbol, thereby arriving at a less Vedic-centric understanding of the swastika.
The information below is based on the information that has been presented in this article. If you are from one of these cultures or have more information, please post on this article's discussion page. As we can see, information is scarce.
The cultures below that gave the meaning of the symbol as "good luck" may have been influenced by the post-1870s pop culture use of the swastika as a good luck charm.
| Culture | Location | Name for Swastika | Meaning for Swastika |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hopi | Arizona, USA | Ai'veni | Sun symbol; representation of migrations; friendship; peace |
| Kuna (Guna/Cuna) | Panama | Kīnṓe; Naa Ukuryaa | National symbol (on flag); decoration |
| Chilocco Indian Agricultural School | Oklahoma, USA | ? | Sports team logo |
| Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá) | Acre state, Brazil | ? | Personal, family, or clan symbol (kene)(?) |
| Kickapoo, Pottawatomie, and Iowa | Great Plains and Great Lakes region, USA and Canada | ? | Good luck; sun symbol |
| Navajo | Southwestern USA | Whirling Log; Whirling Rainbow; others? | Motifs found in different contexts in sand paintings representing myths and teachings |
| Omaha and Sioux | Great Plains region, USA | ? | Four winds; sun symbol |
| Sac (Sauk) | Great Lakes region, USA and Canada | ? | Good luck |
| Secotan | Pomeiooc and Aquascogoc villages, southeastern USA | ? | Personal, clan, dynasty, or village symbol |
| Skokomish (Coast Salish) | Washington state, USA | ? | Four winds |
| Unspecified "Mexican" culture | Mexico | ? | A hieroglyph for the word "year"? |
Footnotes
[1] Kim Messier. (2017). "The Use of the Swastika Symbol in American Indian Art."
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/14704870-the-use-of-the-swastika-symbol-in-american-indian-art
[2] The Evening Star. (Washington, D.C.). (December 13, 1940). 300 Indian Baskets, Collected Over 40 Years, Given U.S.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1940-12-13/ed-1/seq-23/
[3] Pocono Record. (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania). 1940: "Another nation" desecrates Native American swastika. 75 years ago this week. (Original article published February 27, 1940. Online article republished February 21, 2015).
https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20150221/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/150229906
[4] The Phoenix Index. (March 9, 1940). Indians Ban Swastika Sign.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96060866/1940-03-09/ed-1/seq-1/
[5] Nogales International. (Nogales, Arizona). (March 23, 1940). Arizona Indians Renounce 'Desecrated' Swastika.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96060774/1940-03-23/ed-1/seq-1/
[6] Carbon County News. (Red Lodge, Montana). (March 8, 1940). Page 7. Arizona Indians Renounce 'Desecrated' Swastika.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84036287/1940-03-08/ed-1/seq-7/
[7] The Wilmington Morning Star. (Wilmington, North Carolina). (March 2, 1940). Page 5. Putting The Indian Sign On Swastika.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78002169/1940-03-02/ed-1/seq-5/
[8] The Coolidge Examiner. (Coolidge, Arizona). (February 29, 1940). Page 2. Four Indian Tribes End Use of Swastika.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94050542/1940-02-29/ed-1/seq-2/
[9] Given the caption, this postcard was published after WWII began. The following source includes this postcard in a compilation of other Arizona-related postcards, but it does not provide a date or company which published it.
Al Ring. Arizona, Linen Radio Cards. Post Card Collection. Section 3—Indians-Hopi to Petrified Forest.
https://ringbrothershistory.com/alsprojects/pdfs/State%20Postmarks%20PDF/6%20%20Linen%20Coll%20Section%203%20Indian%20Apache%20to%20Petrified%20F%20compressed.pdf
https://ringbrothershistory.com/
[10] Don Morris. (1986). Archaeological Investigations at Antelope House. Page 547; 552.
https://archive.org/details/archeologicalinv00morr/page/546/mode/2up
[11] Alex Patterson. (1992). A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest. Swastika, page 196.
https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781555660918/page/196/mode/2up
[12] Frank Waters. (1963). Book of the Hopi. Drawings and source material recorded by Oswald White Bear Fredericks. See Chapter 13, starting on page 137.
https://archive.org/details/bookofhopi00fran/page/136/mode/2up
[13] Louis A. Hieb. (2004). Alexander M. Stephen and the Navajos. New Mexico Historical Review, 79(3): 353-395.
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2778&context=nmhr
[14] Alexander M. Stephen. (c. 1891-1894) Hopi Journal. Part 1 and 2. Edited by Elsie Clews Parsons. (1936). Page 217.
https://archive.org/details/hopijournalofale0023step/page/216/mode/2up
[15] Ibid., page 63, 83.
[16] Michaelyn Suzanne Harle. (2003). A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Fains Island. Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee - Knoxville.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/3248/
[17] Lewis Beale. (May 28, 2006). Who's That Masked Man and Where Did He Learn to Wrestle Like That? New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/movies/28beal.html
[18] Wikipedia. Guna Yala, subsection "Revolution". Page last edited March 20, 2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guna_Yala#Revolution
[19] National Museum of Natural History. San Blas Islands Flag (c. 1920s-1930). Donated by Col. Harold D. Kehm (1967). Accession Number: 271304. USNM Number: E406973-0.
https://www.si.edu/object/flag:nmnhanthropology_8436878
[20] Wikipedia. Guna people, subsection "Flag". Page last edited March 12, 2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guna_people#Flag
[21] Erland Nordenskiöld and Ruben Pérez Kantule. Henry Wassén (ed.). (1938). An Historical and Ethnological Survey of the Cuna Indians. Göteborg: Göteborgs Museum, Etnografiska Avdelningen. Page 416.
https://archive.org/details/an-historical-and-ethnological-survey-of/page/415/mode/2up
[22] Erland Nordenskiöld and Ruben Pérez Kantule. Henry Wassén (ed.). (1938). An Historical and Ethnological Survey of the Cuna Indians. Göteborg: Göteborgs Museum, Etnografiska Avdelningen. Page 6-7.
https://archive.org/details/an-historical-and-ethnological-survey-of/page/5/mode/2up
[23] Erland Nordenskiöld and Ruben Pérez Kantule. Henry Wassén (ed.). (1938). An Historical and Ethnological Survey of the Cuna Indians. Göteborg: Göteborgs Museum, Etnografiska Avdelningen. Page 224.
https://archive.org/details/an-historical-and-ethnological-survey-of/page/223/mode/2up
[24] Wendy DeChambeau. (2014). Inti Raymi in Cotacachi, Ecuador: Friends, Fun, and Fighting.
https://unmappedlife.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/inti-raymi-in-cotacachi-ecuador-friends-fun-and-fighting/
[25] Elsje Maria Lagrou. (2004, last updated 2018). Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá). Povos Indígenas no Brasil.
https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Huni_Kuin_(Kaxinaw%C3%A1)
[26] Maine Memory Network. World War I and the Maine Experience. Maine Historical Society.
https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/2662/slideshow/1616/display?use_mmn=1&format=slideshow&prev_object_id=5269&slide_num=19
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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shooting_the_Rapids.jpg){kind=link}
