New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-12
NAVAJO INDIAN GOODS.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE WONDEh-
Full BLANKET-THE RED MANS
EVE FOR COLOR


The exhibition and sale OF Navajo goods this
week at Frederick Loeser & Co.'S has attracted so
much attention that the following facts about the
Navajo blanket given by traveller In tine Lana
OF Sunshine" Charles +. Loomis cannot fan TO
prove interesting:
1.-THE Navajo Indian OF New-Mexico and Arizona
cannot vie with the modern Turk in rugs. but when
II to blankets he can beat the world--or'
rather he could for 1t IS nearly generation since
a Navajo blanket OF strictly the first class has been
created. Here Is a lost art-not because the Nava-
JOS no longer know how, but because they VIII no
longer take the trouble. They make thousands OF
blankets st--thick coarse, fuzzy things. which are
the best camping blankets to be had anywhere
ard most comfortable robes. But of the superb old
ponchos and zarapes for chiefs-those iron fabrics
woven from vayeta "a Turkish cloth imported spe-
cialy for them and sold at IS pound. unravened
by Them and Its thread reincarnate In an infinitely
better new body)-not one has been woven III
twenty years. 1t Is loss TO the world. but the
collector who began In time can hardly be philan
thropist enough to lament the deterioration which
has made It impossible that even the richest rival
shall ever be able to match his treasures
There are still Navajos twenty thousand OF
them) and there IS still vayeta: and as there are
people who would give $500 for an absolutely first
class vayeta blanket you might fancy that me
three things would pool. But that Is 10 forget the
Navajo. He Is barbarian TO whom enough is an
elegant suficiency BY weaving the cheap and
wretched blankets Of to-day-wretched. that Is, as
works of art-he can get all the money he desires
Why. then. toll a twelvemonth over n blanket Tor
500 (Which Is coin than he can imagine any
how when a weeks work will bring 3?
THE art of the Navajo blanket IS rs old as
Plymouth Rock-and almost as bigotod You can
tell a genuine just far you can sec it. 1t Is
curious fact known to the student, that When leit
TO himself the Indian never bunders IN color ~ II
only when too long rubbed with our shoddy ciVlilZa-
our anilne dyes that he perpetraes atrocities Ills
eye for color - elemental and absolutely correct.
Red Is king-and no magenta, mauVe or iake, oit
true red Blue Is good, because II STANDS lor tno
sky, and green because ii IL the grass. ana yelo"
for the SUM- and white for the clouds and snow
and these are tho only colors found In a strictly
perfect Navajo blanket. To the indian color Is d
part of religion, and puppies ana pinks ana other
The blanket of to-day Is the most graphic witness
the falling off of the abOrgine that ever came
into court 1t is full of hues that any decent indian
knows to be literally Infamous A generation ago
a Navajo would have been put TO death by, MS
people If simply found in possession OF one OF those
witch-colors But the true old blanket was as per,
have blankets which have for seventy-fve years
done duty on an adobe floor
"Of course at all times these gems were COM
paratvely few Not every Navajo weaver was
whose thread cost S. pound as could stand the
| natural wool at 30 cents. But what has done the
most to make the old-time blanket scarce Is the
| fact that II almost invariably buried win lts
owner In the Christian graveyards Of the Pueblos:
| In the barbaric. lonely last cuddling places. OF
Navajo captains. the vast majority OF the perfect
| blankets have gone to the worms myselt nave
seen ponchos not three collections in the World
could match to-day swathed about corpse ana
covered with six feet Of earth, and you can fancy
If that would make a collector gnash his teeth.