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My mother and my aunts remember sleeping under quilts made by our “old mothers” that had “swastika looking symbols inside circles” on the quilts. When World War II came along, the quilts were packed away downstairs in the basement, never to be used again. Does anyone else have any memories in their families of this symbol?
Syd;36796 wrote: My mother and my aunts remember sleeping under quilts made by our “old mothers” that had “swastika looking symbols inside circles” on the quilts. When World War II came along, the quilts were packed away downstairs in the basement, never to be used again. Does anyone else have any memories in their families of this symbol?
Syd,
I don’t have family memories of swastika looking symbols.
However,I have an old copy of Universal American Indian Sign Language by William Tomkins (c. 1926) that I bought way back in 1969. There’s a swastika on the back of this book;not sure of the context.
I heard that when WW 2 broke out,the Southwest US nations agreed to stop using the swastika because of
its Nazi symbolism.
roca;36799 wrote: Syd,
I don’t have family memories of swastika looking symbols.
However,I have an old copy of Universal American Indian Sign Language by William Tomkins (c. 1926) that I bought way back in 1969. There’s a swastika on the back of this book;not sure of the context.
I heard that when WW 2 broke out,the Southwest US nations agreed to stop using the swastika because of
its Nazi symbolism.
Interesting – thanks for the reply! I’m really new to this site and I realize that the site has been going for over a decade. I was hoping that people are still posting things and that the older members haven’t “burned out” on this research. So far, my family research has only successfully taken me back to 1848. I’d like to get to the 1700’s if I can so I can have a better idea of who our folks are.
I’ll look up that book by William Tomkins. Also, do you know if our little (or not so little) group on this site decided on an emblem? I saw some talk about three arrows?
Syd, do you have access to the old quilts? It would be interesting to know if the arms of the whirlwind symbol are oriented like the swastika or the reverse. The southwestern symbol that I have seen is the reverse.
Roco, is the symbol on the back of the book reversed from the Nazi symbol?
Dreaminghawk,
The swastika on the back of Tompkins book has clockwise arms like the Nazi symbol does.
This is a reproduction of an artifact found on the Eno attributed to Siouan tribes living there at the time, the Occaneechi, the Stuckenock, the Eno, the Sissipaha, etc. The original is in the museum at Occoneechee State Park in Clarksville, VA.
It is a whirlwind. The artist who created this, Grady Smith, a Creek descendant, said that the lore he was familiar with would have interpreted is as the outer triangles representing the forest, the inner band of triangles representing the village, and the whirlwind represents the creator of the universe breathing life into the world.
If that quilt exists somewhere it may be significant, a direct link to Siouan ancestors who kept the symbol alive that long.
Linda;36834 wrote:
It is a whirlwind. The artist who created this, Grady Smith, a Creek descendant, said that the lore he was familiar with would have interpreted is as the outer triangles representing the forest, the inner band of triangles representing the village, and the whirlwind represents the creator of the universe breathing life into the world.
Linda, the only one I have seen was from my great aunt. Hers was a four legged cross with the tips bent and a feather on each end. Her recollection was that the feather represents the four winds of the grandfathers and the bends indicated the whirlwind of life. Close to each other. I guess there are probably many different versions.
Yikes! i haven’t checked this site in a while and I didn’t realize that folks were asking about these quilts. I just called my mom and asked her about the quilts. She hasn’t seen them in years and will ask my aunts. But she thinks they may have been destroyed over the years. She remembers that the spokes of the “swastikas” pointed counter-clockwise. So the top spoke pointed to the left, the botton spoke pointed to the right, the left spoke pointed down, and the right spoke pointed up. She’s confirming this memory with my aunts and will call me back.
[QUOTE=Linda;36834]
Don’t know if this means anything, but I remember reading that the numbers 7 and 4 are significant (I think to the Siou?) – (not sure, maybe they are significant to the Cherokee). Anyway, I noticed that the spokes of this whirlwind all have the longer legs made of 7 points, and all the shorter stems made of 4 points. Just interesting.
The swastica symbol on quilts was an a symbol that Native Americans used to mean peace. I am a quilter. That is what I have been told. I think they are beautiful and a part of history and should not be destroyed.
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