The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-27
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC ,. HAsKnS, Director,
Washington, d. O.
NAVAJO WEAVING ART.

height of fame. The attention OF the
flapper has been attracted to their
wonderful barbaric designs and a
wave of Navajo sweaters is sweeping
the country.
Flappers are blazing forth in sweat
red, green, yellow. white and black.
Typical Indian designs - diamonds,
zigzags, even angular human figures
march in stiff borders across the
fashionable maiden's chest
The Navajo sQuaw remains obIiVl-
Gus to this final tribute to her art
Stoically she continues to weave
blankets to supply the never-endtng
demands of pale face collectors ana
tourists.
The Navajo blanket is one of the
strangest art developments in this
country. No blanket makers nave
ever rivaled the squaws OF this race
who sit in their huts and weave mys-
terious stories on primitive looms
The weavers are almost everything
that we would not expect. We think
of the Indian arts as evolving SLOWLY
out of long ago centuries Yet scleh-
lists believe that the Navahos learned
their craft only since 1870, and that
colors were not employed by them IN
blanket making until 1900. In otneF
words, the Navajo squaW became d
master craftsman scarcely more than
a hundred years ago, but in a single
century of development her work mas
been pronounced a high type of bar
barrie art and eagerly sought after by
mum erous collectors
Another unexpected turn to Navaho
blanket making is that among the
deliberately designed blankets no two
are alike. The sQuaw wants no pic
ture nor finished blanket to copy. she
weaves from memory and from the
life around her. Jagged terraces or
lines are the mountains. Rows OF
square figures are Indian villages. Red
lines are sunbeams and zigZag lines
are lightning.
Cannot Copy Their Work.
Connoisseurs have shown a weaver
a particularly admired pattern ana
asked for a duplicate The Navajo
agrees wonderingly, and sits down to
work. But at some stage the idea
that the white man can really want
a mechanical copy grows too impos-
sible for her to understand, or else
she is carried away by her art. AT
any rate the reproduction is rarely
just like the original.
The work of the Navajo squaw is
slowly, conscientiously done. She may
spend six months or more on a
blanket that appeals to her fancy. Yet
again the paradox of the Navajo
the master weavers do not attempt TO
turn. out perfect work. 1t may be
that the race holds to the oriental
belief that only Allah can achieve
perfe ction, and that it is fitting for
men to acknowledge their human es-
tate by deliberately falling a little
short. Whatever the theory, the
Navajo weaver, with all her skill, does
not try to make her strip of textile
perfect. She may have three triangles
in a design in one corner and four in
the other. Such defect is obviously
s because the weavers
a tiny motif exactly all around
blanket when desired.
The Navahos are the only people
who can thoroly understand the SYM
comparatively few of their fine blan-
kets are kept for home use.
A squaw weaves the story of her
life or some dramatic incident of
tribal history into a blanket and goes
out to sell it to a trader. Often the
hos are far from loquacious in ex-
planning their symbolism to the white |
man. But apparently the Navaho
weaver does not expect an under
some creative instinct by pro-
ducing the blanket, and then she
makes another. Her own tribe now
prefers blankets from American fac
tories about the home They are not
art work but they are lighter in weight
and cheaper
Almost every popular kind of craft
work can be initiated, but the Navajo |
blanket defies machinery. The colors
are used and dropped in a fashion
that cannot be copied by weaving |
ma chimes.
limitations Easily Detected.
Such machine-made limitations as
are on the market fall so far short of |
the beauty of the handmade articles
that they do not achieve ready sale |
limitations are easily detected. In a |
genuine Navajo blanket the design IS !
exactly the same on both sides. A pin |
stuck thru will come out on the other |
side at exactly the same color and |
place in the design.
Tho limitations are not numerous the |
government has taken precautions |
lgainst the sale of such articles for /
genuine Navajo blankets. Every pro- |
duct of the Indian weaver's loom is |
Inspected and tagged before the trader |
can handle IT. The tag is a protec- |
ton to both the weaver and the buyer. |
Since weaving is the best thing that !
the Navahos do, the government en- |
courages them to make a living by |
their art. In the schools Indians who |
are skilled weavers are employed by /
the government to interest the chill |
1ren in blanket making and to teach /
them the processes
The weavers seem to lose none of |
their skill with the passing of genera
tons, and while old blankets are |
sought by collectors the new ones. IL |
we'll made, always find buyers. Like |
line NiOAlns Il BOOu NdNdHO DldnhSl |
Increases in value with age. Colors /
soften but do not fade. and the tightly l
woven fabric wears like iron. Old /
woven strips that were roughly used |
IS saddle blankets by the Indians have |
been found by collectors, and under /
The CRIME the colors were still clear.
Connoisseurs scour the southwest /
even as far as Mexico. for /
Did products OF the Navajo looms.
Once. fine. specimens could be bought
rom Indians of various tribes all over
New Mexico and Arizona. But grad
Ially travellers have bought up the
best OF tfAse so that an old blanket
s considered rare find.
Museums all over the country have
blankets that were bought for a few
dollars and that would now bring sew