Sandal Materials 1976.14.105
Octavius Seowtewa: This is probably how they started the sandal. It was really soft and the way it was tied together to make it not break apart. This one doesn’t have the ties, but it is in the same idea, the same format of the sandal that we saw yesterday. So, whoever started this, put this together, and did not finish the sandal. It says grass, but it’s got more than grass. It’s got, looks like yucca, and that was what was used to tie the other sandal yesterday. The reason why we picked it was because of what we saw yesterday. I think this is a good indication of somebody starting their own sandal.
Michael Gchachu: It’s probably for a child, because of the size. If it was for an adult, it would have been a little bigger.
Octavius Seowtewa: Like the one yesterday. That is how it was formed and that’s why we want to show the guys, the start of how they would how they would start making a sandal.
Fumi Arakawa: Do you have any kind of stories or anything about shoes or sandals?
Michael Gchachu: Protect their feet.
Presley Haskie: I was told (by someone who used to do a stick races) one time, I asked him how they managed to, if one of their sticks would fall into a cactus patch, how they would get it out because they’re not supposed to pick it up, they use their feet. He said they condition their feet before the races. And so, I said “Well, how do you condition, just walk barefoot all the time?”. He said no. He actually, gave me one of the secrets. He said that before the sap would totally dry that they would go to the river sand and that they actually walk on it, and with that sap and putting sand on it, conditions your feet and actually just use your foot to grab it and then throw the stick. And I never knew that.
Fumi Arakawa: That’s pretty cool.
Octavius Seowtewa: That might have been how they condition their feet to put calluses on the bottom so when they walk, they can actually walk on cactus pads without penetrating.
Fumi Arakawa: Thank you.