Bisbee daily review., 1908-04-19
History of Earliest Craftmanship, That
 of the Navajo Blanket

used by our great grandmothers. The Navajos do not use spinning wheel, though they are abundantly able to purchase them, but they cling in this part of the work to the old methods
 exclusively. The spinning is done on
 the simplest of distaffs, made of slender stick stuck through a round
 disc of wood. This makes spinning a
 very tedious task, as the yarn must
 be spun, three and for the best grade
 of blanket, four times. to get it sui- ficiently fine.
 The loom is of the simplest con- struction, and is without many of the
 parts considered necessary by civil ized weavers. It is at first, a frame
 of light sticks lashed together at the corners, over which is wound the
 warp, the frame being then fastened to upright posts set in the ground i Simple as is it's construction, or per haps because of its simplicity, the
 process of weaving is very compli-
 cated, and, to az on-looker, most diff ticult.
 When weaving, the woman sits on l the ground before her loom, ana,
 when the fabric has reached a height that makes it inconvenient to reach,
 she loosens the top bar of the loom. lets it down, and sews tuck in the
 finished fabric deep enough to draw
 it taut. So tightly is this drawn mat often in the finished product may be seen the stitch marks.
 The Navajo 'weayers" may be di-
 vided into four classes; the very ola in natural colors, the bayets, the na- tive wood with native dyes, and the | Germantown.
 The first blankets were of the
 coarsest, crudest weave-mere protec-
 ton from cold. They were woven | with the white wool, with, at first,
 no attempt to design later, a stripe ! of the wool from the black sheep was | added to each end.
 The impetus that drove to the beau
 tHul designs and exquisite workman snip of the second period was the in troduction of bayeta. Bayeta was a | long mapped, beautifully woven cloth | dyed fine scarlet with cochineal dyes. It was manufactured in Man
 chester, England, imported into Spain,
 and exported again to the traders Tn ] New Spain. The Indians raveled il
 out and rewoye the wool in their blan-
 kets. The earliest of these blankets ! have the stripes of the bayeta woven | alternately with stripes of the natural
 wool Later developed the acompli- cated, symbolic designs, which are
 now regarded as characteristic of the l Navajo blanket The bayeta was ,eiy
 expensive, the ravelling of it required | great patience, and the use of such precious material naturally led tu | much greater care in the preparation of the other wool used with it, and 1 thus a great advancement in the qual- | ity Of the product. So any blanket
 that contains the least scrap Ul uhfs scarlet wool is called bayeta, and is | now worth its weight in silver. The
 use of bayeta fell into decline auuut 1860, and passed entirely away in I 1875. The high regard in which the Indians and Mexicans regarded these i bayeta blankets caused them to be | cherished, and accounts for the large l number preserved in good condition. The traders were quick to note the
 Indians desire for color, and soon af-
 ter the use of bayeta began, intro ] duced indigo from Mexico ana DraAl
 wood, which produces a mahogany
 color. The Indians, ,experimented with
 roots, bark and leaves until they
 found a good yellow; mixing this with
 the indigo gave them green. Among
 their flocks were many oF the much
 maligned black sheep, upon which i their dusky owners looked with great favor, for black was important in
 their symbolism of color, and they
 were not aware of its value in main
 taining the color harmony for which
 their work is so justly famed By
 mixing the black and white wool, a
 beautiful soft gray is produced These
 three colors, black, white and gray
 are those meant by natural colors.
 The bayeta period and that of the
 native dyes overlap, the native dyes
 being developed soon after the bay
 eta came into use and surviving it.
 During this combined period, the col