Unfolding Tradition
The Navajo
The Hopi
The Chimayo
The Pueblo
The Southwestern United States is home to several Native American groups including the Navajo, Hopi, Chimayo, and Pueblo, which are represented in the AAHC. For more information on the individual cultures, see their corresponding sections on this site. Provided here is a chronicle of events that impacted the weaving techniques and dyeing technologies of the Navajo as well as the other cultural groups of the region. We focus in particular on the Navajo in this section since much of the story of weaving in the Southwest has been centered around the Navajo, who undoubtedly had an enormous impact on the textile production of the Southwest as a whole.
The Navajo, or Diné, historically learned to weave from the Pueblos in the mid-seventeenth century, possibly as a result of interactions with Pueblo slaves or refugees before the rebellion of 1680. However, Navajos say that they learned to weave from Spider Woman…
“Spider Woman instructed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom which Spider Man told them how to make. The cross poles were made of sky and earth cords, the warp sticks of sun rays, the healds of rock crystal and sheet lightning. The pattern was a sun halo, white shell made the comb. There were four spindles: one a stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of cannel coal; one a stick of flash lightning with a whorl of turquoise; a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a whorl of abalone; a rain streamer formed the stick of the fourth, and its whorl was white shell.” Spider Woman legend
Nevertheless, they adopted the belt and vertical loom, in addition to weaving techniques, materials (fibers and dyes) and types of woven cloth from the Pueblos. (See the Pueblo section for a discussion of looms, weaving techniques, decorative techniques, and designs which are common to all of the groups represented on this site but are particularly associated with the Pueblo.)
However, the Navajo also made modifications on Pueblo methods. For example, weaving was established as a “woman’s” rather than a “man’s” art amongst the Navajo (Kent 1985: 8).
Navajo weaving was heavily influenced by the needs of the market. The weavers wove what the buyers wanted to purchase, and the textile styles and patterns changed accordingly. Navajo weaving can be broken into three stylistic periods, Classic (1650s-1865), Transitional (1865-1895), and Rug (1895-present) (Kent 1985). Here, we utilize these groupings, but it is wise to note that the start and end days of these periods overlap and vary from source to source (see alternative dates of Pre-Classic (before 1800), Classic (1800-1865), Late Classic (1865-1880), Transitional (1880-1895), and Rug to Modern (1895-present) (Wheat 2003: 146-147); also, see the alternative dates Early (pre-1860), Transitional (1860-1880), and Late (1880-1900) (Bowen 1979: 55)).
Navajo Classic Period (1650s-1865)
Early in this period, Navajo weavers directed much of their time and energy toward producing clothing for their own people. They wove woolen garments which were similar to those that the Pueblo had designed and made of cotton. However, the shape, use of wool yarns and indigo dye, and the common pattern of simple stripes all resulted from Pueblo and Spanish influences.
The predominant colors used in this period include indigo (mixed with yellow to create green), white, and a range of blackish-brown and light brown shades, grays, and tans, and raveled reds. Towards the end of this period and into the Transitional, red in many shades, bright orange, yellow, purple, and green began to be utilized. The yarn was both handspun and raveled and the patterning of textiles was angular, large scale, and filled without borders.
Throughout the eighteenth century, the Navajo expanded their trade network with Pueblos, Utes, Apaches, Comanches, and Spaniards in which their woolen blankets played a major role. The Independence of Mexico in 1821 and the opening of the Santa Fe Trail in the same year linked New Mexico with the central United States and furnished Navajos with new outlets for their textiles arts, as well as new yarns for their weaving. Furthermore, the 1848 incorporation of New Mexico and Arizona as territories into the United States provided weavers with new opportunities.
Since about 1850, Anglo-Americans have accounted from much of the changes seen in the textiles of indigenous communities of the Southwestern United States (e.g., bright aniline dyes, ready-made cloth, and commercial yarns such as the imported “Germantown” yarns). The lessened demand within Navajo communities from their own loom production turned weavers to off-reservation markets. By the 1860s, some blankets included an array of raveled and respun yarns, and multiple-ply trade yarns, combined in colorful patterns. The end of this period is marked by the imprisonment of Navajos by the United States government at Bosque Redondo from 1863-1868.
Navajo Transitional Period (1865-1895)
Following the five-year confinement of the Navajo at Bosque Redondo, they were obligated to live on a mere portion of their former homelands. This portion of land, their reservation, was an agriculturally poor area that was quickly overgrazed by the Navajo’s sheep. After the formation of the reservation in 1868, the market value of their textiles declined and began to be sold by the pound at trading posts predominately run by white males. Beginning in the late 1860s, the “Transitional,” also referred to as “Late Classic,” was characterized by a transition from clothing and blankets to including rugs woven for Anglo-American markets. The Anglo-American traders’ preferences of color, pattern, and materials, heavily influenced the types of textiles produced during this period and the following Rug period.
While at Bosque Redondo, Navajo women began to relinquish their traditional blanket-dresses in favor of the American-style calico skirts and they also began to reserved their traditional dress only for ceremonial and religious contexts. By the late nineteenth century, Navajos wove mostly for trade and had converted their textile production from blankets to rugs, although shoulder and saddle blankets were still made for local consumption.
Early Transitional period textiles show a mix of old and new patterns and materials. The dyes used by weavers during this period include natural and synthetic, and their yarn was both handspun and raveled. The simple stripes and terraced motifs of the Classic period continue to appear, but serrated motifs increase in importance (Kent 1985: 15). Due to the Anglos’ preference for borders, this period is also marked by the introduction of borders, especially after 1900.
By 1880, the best quality blankets were woven entirely of imported Germantown yarns in intense “eye-dazzler” patterns, in a variety of colors, some made from chemical dyes. In 1882, the Atlantic and Pacific railroads reach Gallup, establishing a link between Navajos and the off-reservation Anglo market, with traders acting as middlemen. By 1889, there were 15 trading posts on the Navajo reservation and 30 surrounding it (M’Closkey 1995: 102). The traders at these posts sought to monopolize weaver’s production and all associated products such as wool and hides.
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Navajo Rug Period (1895-present)
During this period, soft, brightly colored Pendleton wool blankets from American mills in Oregon had largely replaced handwoven mantas and blankets within the Navajos’ own society as well as among their traditional Indian customers. Weavers wove to the taste of their dealer/ trading post, thus, certain patterns became associated with their post or were sometimes named for it. Traders began to be concerned with the “authenticity” of Navajo textiles, they discouraged the use of commercial yarns like the colorful Germantown yarns popular in the 1870s and 1880s, instead, they suggested homespun yarns in natural colors (almost exclusively vegetal dyes). With the decline for blankets and increased favorability of rugs, weavers began making rugs made from heavier, more durable yarns. Weavers also began to use pictorial forms from Navajo sand paintings (e.g., spiritual beings).
By the turn of the twentieth century, the internal demand for native-woven textiles, besides belts and saddle blankets, had virtually ceased. Both men and women were wearing European-style clothing, which was made of commercial materials acquired at the trading posts (Kent 1985: 17).
Between the end of their confinement at Bosque Redondo and 1940, there were several attempts to improve Navajo sheep, thus many rugs woven between 1920 and 1950 are characterized by the “crimped, nubby yarns they contain,” which are due to the inbreeding of Churro with other sheep (e.g., Merino) (Kent 1985: 40).
The second half of the twentieth century saw several attempts to improve the status of the textiles arts. Some attempts have had success (e.g., Indian Arts and Crafts Board), but the amount of encouragement and financial support have varied (Fox 1978: 74-76).