Bisbee daily review., 1912-12-01
Navajos Continue Ancient Industries
 to the Present Day

sion of its making. woven into form as the fancy arose.
 | A Navajo Home ard Blanket Weaver One might driSo for days on the twelve thousand square miles reser- vation of the Nayajos, and although | there are from sixteen to twenty | thousand of the Indians, he would meet with not more than a score In week. The Navajo is a great lover of seclusion. and his hogan" or fam fly residence Is generally to be found where the locker for it would least expect.
 Simple and primitive, it offers no attraction at first sight but novelty. The engraving on our cover pages is photographic representation Of it's appearance. and IS taken from pho tograph of a Navajo woman weaver al her work.
 No loom could be more simple than hers-two upright poles. across the top Of which third pole is fastened, with a fourth one as a cross-beam at the bottom. Below the upper cross beam another beam is suspended by Iashings of rawhide, and to this the ynrn-beam is fastened. On this yarn, beam the vertical threads of the warp are tied to a corresponding beam answering the same purpose at the bottom. The rawhide above serves to draw the threads tight, and when thus fixed, the loom is ready for the weaver.
 With her different "Shuttlesr, oi yarn she squats on the ground, tailor fashion. and thrusting a stick through the warp, she divides tLe cords, so that she can run the different threads of the wool without delay. The shut tie" is simple piece of stick, on the end of which the yarn has been wound As soon as a thread is placed in position, "batten stick" when, like the wool stick, is always kept in the warpds brought down with such great force as to wedge the thread into a firm and close position. And thus every thread is "battened down" with such vim and energy that one does not wonder to find the blanket when finished capable of turning the heaviest rains.
 The pattern of the blanket is de signed in the busy brain of the weay- CT, and no sketch or plan of 1t is drawn to enable her to remember the original design. Memory does it's work when compelled to do so, and the Navajo weaver once having thought out" a pattern, finds no diftl- uclty in remembering it and making 1t real in the fabric she is fasnionlng.
 One frequently hears that many sO- called Navajo blankets are made in Eastern factories, but this is not true to any great extent.
 And then, too, a blanket thus made is so garish, the likeness to the gen uine article so poor that 1t does not even constitute a good imitation. NO dealer with the slightest sense of de cent business dealing would offer one one of these as Navajo blanket, and tourists have only themselves to blame if they are sometimes thus de- ceived
 The term blanket" is generally used to describe anything of Navajo weave, largely because fthe fact that m the beginning and for many years after, the Navajos only had such sizes as would serve as serape, or as a blanket for sleeping purposes.
 As the demand for these goods in- creased, smaller sizes were woven and used as rugs, and at the present time, they are woven in various sizes from a pillow top or small rug. BuI ;he term blanket" seems to be fas- tened on them by common consent and by that term they will probably continue to be known.