THE ART OF NAVAJO WEAVING
THE DESERT Southwest, with its magnificent landscape of canyons, buttes, and mesas was then and is now a great influence on the brilliant weavings created by the Navajo dwellers of this wonderful region. Navajo weavings were one of the first Native American arts to be traded far and wide, cherished for their incredible beauty and fine craftsmanship. This art continues into the world of today.
Among the tribes of the American Southwest, weaving began with the Pueblo Indians who used upright looms to weave natural cotton into fabric. It wasn’t until after the Spanish arrived bringing horses, cattle, and sheep, did weaving become important among the Navajos. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 led to the westward journey of some Pueblo into Navajo lands. It is believed that during this time the Navajo learned weaving from the Pueblo men. However it was the Navajo women, not the men, who took up the art of weaving. Their skills flourished, and within two generations the Spanish were remarking on the superiority of Navajo textiles.
During the early period of Navajo weaving, many of the products were made into clothing for the Navajos themselves, but a large amount was sold or traded to the Spanish as well as to other Indian tribes. By mid-1800s, Navajo trade blankets were valued by chiefs of many Plains tribes, and weaving was done primarily for export rather than for domestic use.
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With the arrival of the reservation traders between 1870-1880, came a change in the appearance of Navajo weaving, the consequence of textiles being made solely for income. The traders not only encouraged Navajo weavers to produce higher quality weaving, but they commissioned distinctive weaving patterns that became common among local weavers, and today are associated with different areas of the reservation.
Two Gray Hills is the best known of the weaving styles. Genuine Two Grey Hills rugs are woven of natural, undyed, handspun wool in whites, blacks, and browns. Weavers produce subtle shades of these basic hues by carding together various colored wools. Because of the considerable time and effort required to prepare the wool for this style, weavings using these yarns may cost twice as much as those made from commercial yarns. Similar to other styles with borders, many Two Grey Hills rugs have a spirit line or spirit trail – a tiny row of yarn that runs from the background color through all the border colors to the edge of the rug. This spirit line is meant to release the weaver’s creative energies from the rug back to the Universe so that a weaver’s spirit will not be trapped within the completed rug. The tradition came about because non-Navajo traders, unaware of the taboo, asked weavers for borders. The weavers felt obligated, but avoided misfortune by putting in the spirit line.
According to Navajo myth, the Dine, or the People, were led to the Southwest from the underworld by the Holy People. Spider Man taught the Navajos how to make a loom from sunshine, lightning, and rain. Spider Woman taught them to weave. Anthropologists say that the Navajo migrated south from Canada into New Mexico sometime before 1400. From the Spanish settlers the Navajo acquired churro sheep, noted for their long, fine, lustrous wool. With weaving techniques adopted from the Pueblo people, a traditional Navajo rug is woven on an upright loom with no mechanical parts.
Navajo weaving still flourishes today, but as more younger people leave the reservations, quality rugs are getting scarcer. A trip to the magnificent Four Corners region of the America Southwest offers a chance to see a truly unique art form.
Photos © Ken & Francesca Hulick
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