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In Pima baskets, for example, the symbol is created by interleafing two Grecian frets. The swastika appears frequently on Apache, Papago and Panamint baskets too, and a variant of it has appeared on pottery found at the Mesa Verde ruins (circa 1150-1300 CE). In Central America, the symbol appears on the fine basketry of the Wounaan people of Panama, even to this day. The swastika appears in ogee form on Mayan temples, and is found on Peruvian pottery and in Inca tombs, most prominently in the form of the "tetraskelion", meaning four-legged. 

 In the Navajo culture, there is a  swastika form that arises in sand paintings as part of a certain religious ceremony called The Night Chant. It is commonly known as the "whirling log", though literally in the Navajo language it is called "that which revolves". Briefly, it comes about through a story about an outcast who decides to crawl into a hollow log and float down the river to some distant land where he might find peace and security. He is interrupted by four sacred deities who ultimately seal him inside such a log and conjure up a big wind that launches him into the river. After four days he hits a whirlpool (thus the "whirling" log). Finally, he is hauled out of the river by emissaries of the four deities, and is joined by his pet turkey who is carrying a bean and three grains of corn. These are planted and in four days' time abundant crops have matured; in four more days' time they are harvested. Finally the outcast is instructed  how to prepare sand paintings celebrating these miracles when he returns to his people.  The blanket shown on this page is a rendering of the whirling log sandpainting. With the four dark (male) deities standing on the ends of the crossed logs, it looks like a swastika.

                                                                    (Continued on p. 3)