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The earliest surviving documented Navajo weaving portraying pictorial
images is the Chief White Antelope blanket found in 1864 at the Sand
Creek Massacre site in Colorado. Navajo textile scholars Kate Peck
Kent, Joe Ben Wheat, Kathleen Whitaker and Nancy J. Blomberg by way of
written records have identified pictorial elements in Navajo blankets
as early as 1840 and it is most probable that images appeared in Navajo
blankets before that time.
Pictorial representations in Navajo
weaving have branched into several categories based on secular or
sacred images. Navajo religious figures such as yeis, the Navajo holy
people, and other elements from Navajo sandpainting art as well as
depictions of the sandpaintings themselves began to emerge in the late
1800’s. This sacred imagery has sinced evolved into substyles of
Navajo weaving known as Yei or Yeibichai rugs and Sandpainting rugs
which will be addressed separately.
Today, pictorial weavings
draw ideas from Navajo traditional and contemporary lifestyle as well
as aspects of contemporary culture. Many collectors favor romantic
representations of Navajo life featuring hooghans (the Navajo
traditional home), wagons, livestock and traditionally dressed Navajo
people placed within the red rock landscape of the Navajo homeland,
Dinetah. Modern conveniences such as pickup trucks, TV antennas, and
satellite dishes have crept into the pictorial iconography.
Another
popular image is the Tree of Life. borrowed from early Armenian imagery
bearing the same name. Navajo Tree of Life weavings represent one of
the best examples of how a foreign idea can be introduced into Navajo
artistic awareness and reformulated to work within Navajo cultural
expression. Originally, the birds represented the spirits of the
dead. During the Christian era, the tree and birds became a symbol of
the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. In the Navajo way of
thinking, the tree became a stalk of corn growing from the sacred
ceremonial basket, a symbol of life and the birds represent abundance
and balance in nature.
Navajo pictorial rugs are now
recognized as true Navajo folk expression, a reflection of historic
events whether the introduction of the train to the reservation or the
tragedy of 9/11. Mickey Mouse, Santa Clause and Elvis have all found
their way into Navajo pictorial imagery. This category represents the
most diverse arena of Navajo weaving, accessible to any collector who
hopefully approaches these visions of Navajo and contemporary life with
both a sense of humor and a healthy dose of respect.
Anita Hathale - Rug Weaver: A Navajo rug weaver, Anita Hathale is good at what she does and she knows it. This confidence gives her freedom of artistic expression that has brought new dimension to her designs. Anita recently finished a "Hale- Bopp" rug, inspired by the vivid comet. It is on display at the Museum of Northern Arizona. "I love to weave," Anita says, "when I look at my finished rugs, I think 'Wow, I did that'. I feel euphoric."
Anita Hathale grew up in a family of 8 brothers and 5 sisters, on a remote part of the Utah Navajo reservation. Surrounded by windswept sandstone and desert brush, she found beauty in the barren expanse of her homeland. As a child she helped tend sheep; as a young girl she learned to shear the sheep, wash the wool, dye it with natural plant dyes, and card and spin it into yarn. By the time she was 12 years old her mother, Dinah, felt Anita was ready to learn how to weave the traditional Navajo rugs.
Education was important to the Hathale family and Anita graduated from high school and went on to college. When she married she found a husband who could build her a rug stand, and who was supportive of her need to sit at her loom. Over time she became the mother of six children, five sons and a last born daughter. During the years her babies were coming she put away her loom, but she never lost her desire to return to her art.
Born for the Water People Clan and to the Water Edge Clan, Anita was raised in the traditional Navajo way. Her maternal grandmother, Dezba, was a hand trembler; her father is a medicine man, a crystal gazer who learned the chants and ceremonies from his own father-in-law, Frank Big Boy.
When Anita felt her weaving was in a slump and she needed help, she turned to her father for help. He did a Beauty Way Ceremony for her. The ceremony has a "rainbow prayer" incorporated in it, and the medicine man offers up precious multi-colored stones to deities in exchange for requested blessings.
Anita now weaves up to 11 and 12 hours a day, and loves her work. She has evolved from doing traditional patterns to designing her own original motifs and they are as beautiful as they are unique. Anita, unlike many of her counterparts, is not afraid of open designs- large areas of one color- because her weave is tight and consistent, she doesn't need a pattern to hide a nubby finish.
Anita now buys her yarn from the store, but she puts it through a water process and spins it tighter before using it. As proficient as she is, it still takes her up to a full day to weave a mere two inches on a four foot wide rug, and up to a month to make a rug four by five feet in size.
No wonder Anita feels euphoric when she sees her finished product. She has every right to be elated with her creations, the fruit of her loom.
First Man and First Woman are two of the more important of the Holy People. First Man assigned the different animals to their postions in the world; he caused light and dark to come about; together with First Woman, he reared Changing Woman. Pg. 62
First Woman, in Newcomb's (1967:83) version of Creation, implies that the stars are an important cultural text when she says, "When all the stars were ready to be placed in the sky First Woman said, `I will use these to write the laws that are to govern mankind for all time. These laws cannot be written on the water as that is always changing its form, nor can they be written in the sand as the wind would soon erase them, but if they are written in the stars they can be read and remembered forever.'" Pg. 142
The characterization of First Woman in some settings puts her in a class wholly evil, yet she, like Sun, seems to have had the vision of a world made for man, and the purpose of bringing it into being. When she withdrew from that world she said she would bring colds and similar afflictions, thereby allying herself with evil, yet the part she played in the creation and training of Changing Woman was totally good.
Weaving has been carried to a high degree of perfection by the Navaho. The art as it exists among them today is not an invention of their own, as nothing similar is found among any other tribe of the Athapascan stock. It is pretty safe to say that the Navaho learned the art of weaving from the Pueblos. Their own legends, however, account for it in their own way. The hanelnaeheke hani', or moving upward chant legend, records that the art of weaving was taught by the Spider Man and Spider Woman in the following manner. "The Spider Man drew some cotton (ndaka') from his side and instructed the Navaho to make a loom. The cotton-warp was made of spider-web (nashjei bitlol). The upper cross-pole was called yabitlol (sky or upper cord), the lower cross-pole ni'bitlol (earth or lower cord). The warp-sticks were made of shabitlol (sun rays), the upper strings, fastening the warp to the pole, of atsinltlish (lightning), the lower strings of shabitlajilchi (sun halo), the heald was a tsaghadindini isenil (rock crystal heald), the cord-heald stick was made of atsolaghal (sheet lightning), and was secured to the warp strands by means of nltsatlol billdestlo' (rain ray cords)." "The batten-stick was also made of shabitlajilchi (sun halo), while the beidzoi (comb) was of yolgai (white shell). Four spindles or distaffs were added to this, the disks of which were of cannel-coal, turquoise, abalone and white bead, respectively, and the spindle-sticks of atsinltlish (zigzag lightning), hajilgish (flash lightning), atsolaghal (sheet lightning), and nltsatlol (rain ray), respectively." "The dark, blue, yellow and white winds quickened the spindles (beedizi) according to their color, and enabled them to travel around the world."
Presumably, this legend accounts for the now vanishing tradition that weaving should be done with proper moderation. Overdone weaving (akeitlo) is ameliorated by a sacrifice offered to the spindle (beedizi). Its prayerstick (bik'et'an) consists of yucca, precious stones, bird and turkey feathers, tassels of grass (tlo'zol) and pollen, and forms part of the blessing rite (hozhoji). The hach'eyatqei, or ch'aeyatqei (prayer to the gods), is recited with the sacrifice. The custom withholding maidens from weaving before marriage, which was formerly observed, is also explained by the fear of overdoing weaving. Little or no attention, however, is paid to this tradition today. Pgs. 221, 223
For references to steps in weaving, coloring and dyeing of wool, setting up of loom, weaving, Implements, use of loom, designs and knitting refer to below Pgs. 223-256
Take, for instance, the famous art of Navajo weaving. If you ask a member of the tribe today when weaving was learned, she - for Navajo weavers are women - will tell you that they were taught by Spider Woman, "in the beginning." Yet the Navajo weaving technique, point for point, exactly duplicates that of the Pueblos, who have been weaving since A.D. 600. It is a complicated art, and Navajo girls today need years to learn it from a female relative, practicing every day. It is difficult to believe that the Navajos had worked out the loom, the spindle, and all the other equipment before this era of "learning by marriage." A blanket got in trade, a loom glimpsed on a visit to some pueblo would never have given them enough information. Then there is the problem of sex etiquette, for most Pueblo weavers today are men. Indian proprieties would surely forbid a Navajo woman to receive daily instruction from a strange man. But if she married him! It is possible to imagine the skilled weaver working in a Navajo home, trying to teach his sons who were still wedded to the life of hunting and fighting and, finally, imparting the art to his daughters. That this did not happen too early in Navajo history can be gathered from the fact that all known specimens of Navajo weaving are in wool. Therefore they were made after the Spaniards had come and after the Navajos had sheep. And sheep did not come to the Navajos in any quantity until after the Pueblo revolt. Pgs. 46-47
Even such everyday tasks as weaving must be done only in moderation. Many women will not weave more than about two hours at a stretch; in the old days unmarried girls were not allowed to weave for fear they would overdo, and there is a folk rite for curing the results of excess in this activity. Closely related is the fear of completely finishing anything: as a "spirit outlet," the weaver leaves a small slit between the threads. Pgs. 225-226
The Navajos believe in the Greek maxim "Nothing to excess " believing that overdoing a thing brings bad luck as an offense to the spirits. For the same reason nothing must be too perfect. A rug or basket design with a solid border must have a break in it or flaw to let the spirit of the maker, who has spent so much time and energy, escape. It is natural that things which bring one a livelihood should also have some restrictions. Many commercially minded weavers and other craftsmen have begun to ignore the taboos of their trades as being too restrictive. The large number of taboos relating to pottery making have been given credit for the decline of that craft, and none are listed here.
Don 't hit anyone with weaving tools - crack the tools.
They will be paralyzed in the future.
Don't spank your children with weaving tools.
They'll get sick.
Don't have a weaving comb with six points.
Your baby might have six fingers.
Don't go between the poles of the loom when a woman is weaving.
You won't grow - cause evil - won't get much for the rug.
Don't have the loom of the weaving stand too long.
It will tire and hurt you.
Don't eat or drink while you prepare the loom for the rug.
You'll get poor - won't get much for the rug.
Don't eat while you are weaving.
It will go slow - won't be any good.
Don't weave a Yei figure with one eye smaller or one leg shorter.
It will affect you that way in later life - affect your baby.
Don't leave a Yei figure in a rug unfinished.
The Yeis will get angry - bring bad luck.
This is interesting as a compromise taboo. Yeis are Holy People and as such are supposed to be represented only in the sandpaintings which are used and destroyed before sundown but never done in any permanent form. The famous hermaphroditic medicine man Hosteen Clah was one of the first to weave rug versions of the sandpaintings. In the Shiprock area Yei rugs and other pictorial tapestries became increasingly popular after WWII.
Don't be stubborn while weaving a rug.
It won't be worth much.
Don't throw weaving tools.
You 'II never finish the weaving.
Don't burn weaving tools.
The "Yeis" will get angry - bad luck.
Don't weave if you don't know a weaving song.
It won't be any good.
Don't leave tools in the loom when they are not in use.
You won't finish right away.
Don't weave when it is raining.
It will cause the loom to fall.
Don't stand by the loom when it is raining.
Lightning will strike you.
Don't pass things through the loom.
Anything you pass through will be lost -food, yarn, beads.
Don't bump into or move around a loom you are preparing for a rug.
It will be crooked - you won't be able to get it straight.
Don't leave carded wool too long.
When you start weaving it won't like it and you'll have trouble.
Don't make fun of your weaving.
It will get worse - you'll be poor.
Don't leave a loom outside.
It will collect bad things.
Don't cut off a loom once it is made.
You will have a short life.
Don't steal a rug - wool - weaving tools.
You'll never be lucky - always have bad luck.
Don't weave immoral things in a rug.
You'll be sterile.
Don't weave any taboo animal into a rug.
You will have all the bad luck associated with that animal.
Don 't hang rugs out in the sun.
The sun will take it as an insult.
Don't weave at all (boys).
It will affect the reproductive organs.
Don't weave on the north side of the hogan.
The rug won't be worth anything.
Don't drag your rugs on the ground.
Causes poverty.
Don't leave an unfinished rug outside at night.
It might be witched - you won't be able to finish it or sell it.
Don't put a rug over your horse's face.
It will go blind.
Pgs. 179-183
The principal occupation of the present-day Navajo is raising sheep, goats, and a few cattle. And yet four hundred years ago he had seen no sheep or horses. Under the treaty of 1886, each Navajo was given two sheep - about twelve thousand sheep altogether, since not more than sic thousand Navajos survived Bosque Redondo. Now a million sheep graze on the Navajo land. Since the introduction of sheep to this country by Coronado's men, Navajo women have been weaving rugs on crude hand looms - an art which was not entirely new to them, since they already wove with yucca and other vegetable fibers. Pg. 167
There is a saying that a rug is not good unless a weaver puts her "soul" in it. Like Changing Woman, the Holy Person whom the Navajo woman personifies, the weaver is an eternal creator who weaves both an individual product of her own mind and a more universal product from the mind of the tribe. Pgs. 10-11
