Weavers of Dreams

Weavers of Dreams Navajo Rugs Hold Captive the Soul of Their Makers as Patient Folk Leave Imprint of Past and Hopes of Future

By LILA KIELHORN In ALL America you can find no more tangible portrayal of a people's dreams than on the Navajo Indian reservations of Northern Arizona and New Mexico, for it is here that the justly proud Navajo blankets... or rugs, as they are generally termed . . . are woven.

They are famed and admired but little comprehended. How few realize or understand the cherished dreams and ambitions, the proud hopes or futile longings, prayers, aspirations, old legends or even present-day history woven into these blankets in such striking symbolic designs! And as each weaver is an individual personality, so is each rug, and that is why in all the thousands piled high in curio shops and trading-posts no two can be found exactly alike.

Neither is any rug entirely perfect; entirely finished. The most accomplished weaver knows better than to compete with the perfection of the gods. To do so would bring disaster! Only last summer the most famous weaver of the tribe made a perfect rug. Almost immediately her eyesight failed! True, she finally regained it but she would tell you only after much fasting and ceremonial prayer under the guidance of renowned medicine-men to placate the angry spirits made that possible. That is why close examination will show some slight, almost unnoticeable imperfection of weave or design and if a rug has a border design there will be a tiny break in it . . . to let the evil spirits escape.

Over three hundred years ago the Spaniards introduced sheep, along with other less successful civilizations, to these nomadic Indians. Already knowing the art of weaving . . . most authorities agree that this tribe used looms even before their migration from Alaska . . . it was not long before they utilized the fleece by making warm, protecting blankets or sleeping mats. At first the wool was used only in its natural colors of white, black and brown or a gray made by combining the black and white, and very little attention given to design, the majority being haphazardly striped across the warp. Gradually simple, geometric designs re-placed the stripes in part. In reality these designs were symbols serving to pass on the weaver's thoughts pictorially to posterity. These blankets were substantial affairs, offering warmth through the cold winters and real protection from drenching summer storms (the tightly woven ones shed water like a duck's back) but they didn't satisfy the Indian's love of color. And because of this the Spaniards made handsome profits trading to them a cheap, bright red baize cloth or bayeta, as it is called in Spanish. This the Navajos patiently unravelled and retwisted thus weaving into their own rugs the color symbolic to them of sunshine and even today you rarely find a Navajo rug

without a touch of red, so intense is their regard for the sun that brings them warmth and light and joy of living.

The earlier rugs with designs or background of retwisted baize yarns were called bayetas by the traders to differentiate them from those made entirely of the native yarns for the Indians soon learned to make their own dyes. These old bayetas are now extremely rare and valuable. Years of wear and exposure have softened their texture and toned down the reds to dull, beautiful shades of rose and terra-cotta making them truly collectors' pieces.

From the Mexicans the Navajos learned the use of indigo and dyed much of their white wool with it, while from brazil sticks they learned how to obtain a very good red so that gradually rugs woven from their hand-dyed yarns replaced the favored bayetas. A peculiar green-gold color is also found in the better rugs of this period. They made it from the tiny, yellow blossoms of a plant called rabbitweed which grows profusely on the high plains of Northern Arizona. By boiling the flower-clusters several hours and adding a native alum mordant a dye is obtained which gives a variety of shades ranging from an almost olive-green to old-gold.

Aniline dyes were introduced and the Navajos hurriedly discarded the old, laborious methods. The bright, gaudy colors of the new dyes delighted them and they let their imagination run riot with startling combinations.

The sudden national craze for Indian wares around 1890 served to further cheapen the Navajo rugs. Almost as fast as they could be woven the traders bought them up irrespective of weave or quality. The brighter the colors the quicker they sold and in this sudden boom of prosperi-ty the Navajos could not be blamed for turning out rugs of such inferior quality. After all, they gave the people what they wanted and with their profits bought sewing machines, factory shoes, and more turquoise jewelry. Everyone was happy.

But this didn't last. With the American public finally deluged in Indian blankets, pottery, bows and arrows, moccasins, beadwork, and the barbaric Navajo rugs that refused to fit into the befurbelowed styles of that day, the demand ceased.

The overstocked traders stood the loss-es. They had to. But they could and did refuse all but rugs of exceptionally fine weave and design from the Navajos who in turn shrugged their shoulders stoical-ly, put their too-gay, too-shoddy rugs into personal use, and once more turned deft fingers to weaving rugs of such fineness they would hold water. By degrees their innate sense of color returned and now (outside of the elaborate cere-monial rugs) it is unusual to find a Nav-ajo rug in any color combinations than black, gray, white, brown and red.

Today you find the Navajos making the same kind of rug they did a century ago. The same type of loom is used; the same method of weaving and preparing the yarns; and the same angular, symbolic designs. It remains one of the few Indian crafts commercialism has not materially changed.

Perhaps that is because the Navajos are still essentially a primitive people. Although restricted to the limits of the reservations very few have settled down to confining farms despite government tugs in that direction. They prefer to roam; following their flocks in a leisurely, gypsy fashion, much as their ancestors did before them.

In the spring of the year the sheep and goats are sheared and this exacting task