Up From The Ground

It is less than sixty years ago that traveller-journalist Charles Lummis wrote in his Strange Corners of Our Country: “The largest of these Germantown-yarn blankets takes months to weave, and are worth from thirty to one hundred dollars sometimes more.” and more. and more until today Lummis's Germantown yarn blanket of that vintage may bring upwards of $10,000 at a collector's auction.

In 1974 saddle blankets are not common. Better ones are priced at $90.00 to $100.00. Before we are lost in the outer spaces of the Navajo rug universe, we must state that there are thousands of attractive, hand woven Navajo rugs and blankets available priced from $100.00 to $1,000.00. More than five thousand weavers produce approximately 10,000 finished pieces per year. Not more than ten percent (1,000) will be considered as superior quality weavings. Of these not more than 150 will be the top award winners which collectors will covet and pay whatever price is equitable to their means. It is with these 150 superior to superfine examples that this issue is primarily related and prices stated are not intended to establish market standards, but to illustrate the value of the weaving as a precious work of art.

We have seen and held in our hands a Two Grey Hills rug-size tapestry, cashmere-like to the touch. We can see it as a wrap over our lady's shoulders at the opera. It would take a ten thousand dollar sable to rival it for value and attractiveness.

At the Indian Room, Kathy Foutz is happy to pay a Crystal weaver $1,000.00 in cash over-the-counter for a better than average blanket. Dealers and collectors are going to the loom and paying from two to five thousand dollars for superior specimens of Two Grey Hills, Burnt Water and Wide Ruins tapestries. The Classic and Historic pieces are something else. Women's dress blankets in prime condition are valued from $10,000, while third phase chief blankets are commanding from $15,000 to $20,000.

The 1974 Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial Grand Prize Winner by Mary Lee (page 5 of this issue), was sold at the show for $15,000 to a private collection. And that's the way it is in the commercial side of the romance of Navajo weaving.

The business of knowing, evaluating and buying a Navajo rug, blanket or tapestry is not for novices. We are grateful to the many people who have contributed the product of their experience and knowledge. Contributing editors, Doctors Carl Schaefer Dentzel and Joe Ben Wheat are recognized and respected as academic sources without peers. Collectors and fine arts dealers consider Read Mullan to be one of the world's most dedicated scholars, forever seeking knowledge and material to maintain the standard of excellence for which his gallery of contemporary Navajo weavings is noted. Dorothy and William Harmsen have added an unmatched measure of quality from their Western Americana Collection. Many of our headliners are from private collections, anonymous by owner's request. We must acknowledge the dealer-collectors who are ever reluctant to part with their favorite wares: Richard Spivey and Forrest Fenn, Santa Fe, N.M.; Ray Gwilliam, Tempe, Arizona; Tom Buffaloe, La Jolla, California; Alan Gore and Bob Ashton, Scottsdale, Arizona; Gene Gordon, Don and Nita Hoel Sedona; and Ross Rhoton, Cornville, Arizona. Our travels have taken us to a score of trading posts and trading centers. We came away from each with added richness to our store of knowledge. The McGee Trading Posts and McGee's Indian Den, Scottsdale, Arizona, were prime and recommended sources of information and quality. Our “gold mine” is Russell Foutz, present head of a dynasty of several generations of traders. Mr. Foutz and his kin have handled, appraised, bought and sold more Indian rugs, blankets and tapestries than all other living traders combined. We are pleased to share the following letter from Russell Foutz, dated June 6, 1974: I thought it might be helpful in preparing your forthcoming rug issue to send the following thoughts in this letter.

WE-77 The Navajo dress, left, is lined with calico and was worn circa 1875. Don and Nita Hoel Collection. PETER BLOOMER WE-78 This rare cross shaped rug is virtually a museum piece due principally to its unique shape. From a private collection. JEFFERY KURTZEMAN The three Navajo dresses left-to-right below date from the mid-1800s. The red is bayeta and the blue indigo. WE-79 From Harmsen's Western Americana ARIZONA PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES WE-80 from the Don and Nita Hoel Collection. PETER BLOOMER. WE-81 from Native American Arts. ARIZONA PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES

NAVAJO WEAVING from page 42

Cotton string warp. This type of weaving marked the lowest ebb of Navajo weaving and almost killed the industry. Cotton string was banned, and some of the worst dyes, purple, for example, were banned about 1900; but low-quality rugs with designs poorly conceived and carelessly executed continued to be made until about 1930.

If Navajo weaving was to survive, improvements had to be made. One of the foremost traders, Don Lorenzo Hubbell, of Ganado, Arizona, was among the first to try to elevate the quality of weaving. He tried to standardize designs, and had artists E. A. Burbank and Bertha Little paint pictures of favorite designs. The customer selected his design and color scheme, and the picture was shown to the weaver, who always changed it a little in the weaving.

Some of these were late Classic designs, some featured the Moki striped background, but many others featured crosses of several varieties, swastikas, and most included relatively simple borders. Don Lorenzo was particularly fond of the dark red dye which has since been called Ganado Red; but because vivid colors didn't always fit Victorian houses, he pioneered the use of combed gray for backgrounds. About 1900, Hubbell had more than 300 weavers working for him, making rugs which he wholesaled to C. N. Cotton, Fred Harvey, and others. Reproductions of fine old "bayeta" blankets, women's dresses, manta shawls, and Moki pattern rugs were woven. Miniature looms with partly woven fabrics were a Hubbell specialty for many years.

Fred Harvey, from the inception of his curio trade in 1899, tried diligently to upgrade Navajo weaving. He paid higher prices for better quality, and provided the outlet for many thousands of rugs and smaller pieces over the years.

One of the most interesting developments of the early rug business occurred at J. B. Moore's Trading Post at Crystal, New Mexico. Moore developed what can only be termed "production-line" techniques of rug-weaving. He sent raw wool East to have it scoured. When the clean wool was returned, it was farmed out to his best spinners. Then his wife dyed the yarn in her own kitchen, with superior quality aniline dyes. Finally, the yarn was issued to the best weavers, who wove it into rugs of preselected design. Many designs Moore created himself, taking an Oriental motif here, what looks like a Sioux beadwork design there, and designs from other sources blended them all together - and the J. B. Moore Crystal designs emerged. Borders were frequently complex, and as many as four concentric borders might be used on one rug. Color pictures of these rugs were mailed to potential customers, either as separate plates or in catalogues. The now famous Storm Pattern rug appeared in his 1911 catalogue. Customers could order his rugs in whatever design, color scheme, size, and quality they desired.

Although "standard" pattern rugs were, and are, made all over the Navajo Reservation, regional patterns began to develop about 1900. Nearly all weavers had woven the serrate outline type of design in 1885, but it tended to die out except for the Tis nos Pas area where it continues today as a strong regional pattern, emphasizing brilliantly colored, intricate design, usually with each element outlined in a separate color. Two Grey Hills is probably the most famous name in Navajo weaving today. It started about 1920, developing in part from Moore's Crystal designs. Finely woven, mainly in natural-color wools, variety is achieved by the use of numerous shades of combed tans and grays. While some good rugs are produced, the very fine small tapestries have become the hallmark of Two Gray Hills weaving. The best fabrics of the Classic period had thread counts of about 100 per inch. Today, the fine tapestries of Daisy Taugelchee, Julie Jumbo, and others, often exceed 120 wefts per inch. Combined with highly refined, intricate designs, these are truly remarkable pieces of weaving.

The rugs of Coal Mine Mesa feature simple geometric designs with a raised-stitch outline on a background usually of vertical stripes produced by the beading technique. Other rugs of the western part of the Reservation resemble the old standard patterns popular for the past 75 years. The designs of Ganado and Klagetoh rugs have much in common, with elongated lozenge figures a dominating central motif.

Pictorial blankets with a few animal figures have been known since the 1860s. In recent years the Lukachukai area has become well known for its tapestries which sometimes include fully composed pictures.

Yei rugs should probably be considered a variety of pictorial. The earliest date from around 1900, but they have been made in increasing numbers since. Shiprock seems always to have been a center for Yei rugs mostly with a white ground. Those produced elsewhere tend to have dark-colored grounds, and frequently depict yei dancers rather than yei figures.

Sand Painting tapestries are known as early as 1896, when at least two were woven for Richard Wetherill at Chaco Canyon. About 1920, Hosteen Klah began to weave his famous series of authentic Sand Painting tapestries and to supervise those of his two nieces. Other copies have been woven in the Ganado area and near Kayenta. They are produced today in limited numbers.

Two-faced rugs with a different design on each face seem to have been invented about 1880. They were never common, and today only a few appear each year. These are generally coarsely woven, but occasionally a few of better weave are found.

Twill rugs, commonly called double weave, are an outgrowth of the saddle blankets of the late 1800s. Large and beautiful twills are made today but seem to have no special place of manufacture.

Probably the most interesting development in Navajo weaving since Bosque Redondo is the Revival, an attempt to return to traditional Navajo design and native dyes. In 1920, Mary Cabot Wheelwright and Cozy McSparron, a trader at Chinle, Arizona, began to consider ways to improve the weaving. It was decided that a return to horizontal design styles without borders, and reinstatement of native dyes, would be the best plan. McSparron set about getting the Chinle weavers to make his new rugs. Suitable native dyes were actively sought and many were found, especially in the yellows and greens. These, combined with sparing use of aniline dyes, were used to produce rugs which harked back not to early Classic, but to the combined terraces and serrate designs of the 1870s. By 1930 these rugs had begun to catch on, and fine Chinle rugs in soft pastel shades are still being made.

In 1938, Bill and Sallie Wagner Lippincott bought Wide Ruins Trading Post and encouraged the weavers there to return to old styles and dyes. Again, the experiment was a success. Wide Ruins rugs, with their fine weave, restrained design, and soft greens, browns, and yellows, are among the most handsome and sought-after loom products of the Southwest.

In 1949, Crystal weavers were still producing rugs after the J. B. Moore style when Don Jensen went to work there. He, too, saw the beauty of the Revival weaving, and in a few short years got the Crystal weavers to develop a distinctive style and color scheme of their own. Navajo weaving today reflects the three centuries that the Navajo have been weavers. From each encounter with new and strange ideas, they have assimiliated those things that appealed to them, that were in their character. Always, they have impressed each innovation with their own creative genius. Over all, their weaving today is vastly different from that of 200 years ago, or 100 years ago; but the sheer beauty is there, as it was during the great Classic period. At their best, in their finely wrought tapestries, today's weavers have achieved a new pinnacle of weaving artistry.

WE-5 Russell Foutz Indian Room, Farmington, N.M.

Kathy Foutz, director, Indian Room, is buying a rug from Myra Antonio, left and daughter, from Blanco Trading Post, N.M. Three generations of the Foutz family have built a keystone in the business of trading with the Navajo. For many years they have been the leading wholesale distributors of Navajo rugs. Their trucks supply and service many of the National Park retail outlets.

Russell Foutz also operates the Tees Nos Pos Trading Post, founded 61 years ago. The Tees Nos Pos post has always been known as a good “rug store,” having made the “trade in rugs” a major part of their business.

The large rug on the floor was woven by Ruth Yabeny of Beclabeto, some 20 years ago, and is from the private collection of Mr. and Mrs. Foutz. Mrs. Yabeny is especially known for the rug design used by Kimberly-Clark Corporation for one of the recent Kleenex Americana series of tissue packages. (insert right)

EDITORIAL

In the middle 1950's Navajo rugs had reached a "low" in both quality and quantity. Most of the good weavers had stopped weaving because of the shortage of good long-staple wool, and they were not passing their art along to the young generation.

It was then that two things occurred which stimulated a revival in Navajo weaving. The use of Lincoln bucks (rams), characterized by their long kinky wool, was encouraged to cross with native ewes to produce long-staple wool, and commercially processed wool was made available to the weavers. It was only after commercial yarn was made available that many women who had never made a rug before started to weave. A great number of them learned their art by weaving with Germantown, and then graduated to handspun as they became more expert. Even today some of the vegetal dye and Crystal rugs are woven from processed one-ply yarns, and the finished product is even more salable and beautiful than handspun.

I am convinced that if it had not been for commercially prepared wool Navajo weaving would be a lost art today. Some traders had begun putting out this wool to their weavers a few years earlier, but the biggest impetus was provided by Ned Hatathli, who was at that time head of the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild. He instituted a tribal wool project a reservation wool mill which cleaned and carded Navajo wool and sold it back to the Navajos either in wool top form or spun into skeins.

The above may perhaps be helpful in preparing the material for this issue.

We cannot help but note that poor quality weavings are the exception. With the market demanding quality, weavers are competing for the best paying buyers. Collectors are constantly upgrading their collections. The market is upgrading and the weavers are upgrading the aesthetic and physical qualities of their arts. Navajo weaving is off to new goals and directions. The trend in 1974 is an indication that this most human form of art expression is coming off the floor to its place of honor on the gallery walls.

This special edition is respectfully dedicated to those Navajo women, who, through the product of their art prove that true human sophistication is wisdom gained through experience. They have incorporated changes and influences of other cultures without breaking with Indianism or degenerating their genius.

There is a touch of greatness in every rug, blanket and tapestry selected for reproduction in this edition. The weaver and the quality of her product are not near the end.

Because the weaver weaves not to wear or use, but to sell, often raises the question: What will the weaver buy half so precious as the art she sells? The answer is evident wherever Navajo women work at their looms producing better goods for the best monetary return, which in turn will buy the necessities required to maintain an equitable equilibrium between the poles of Indianism and the live-and-let-live concepts of our non-Indian American standards.

Theirs has been a hard life. Today it is a good life. They are entitled to and deserve a better life.