The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-06-27

WASHINGTON, D. c., June 27.-The
Navajo weavers have reached a new
height of fame. The attention of the
fiapper has been attracted to the won
derful barbaric designs and wave of
Navajo sweaters is sweeping the coun-
try.
Flappers are blazing forth in sweat
ers knitted in true Navajo colors-
red, green, yellow, white and back.
Typical Indian designs-diamonds, zig
gags, even angular human figures
march in stiff borders across the fash
ionable maiden's chest.
The Navajo squaw remains obliyious
to this final tribute to her art. Stoical-
ly she continues to weave blankets to
supply the never-ending demands OF
pale face collectors and tourists.
The Navajo blanket is one of the
strangest art developments in this
country. No blanket makers have ever
rivaled the squaws of this race who sit
in their huts and weave mysterious
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 scientists
believe that the Navajo learned their
craft only since 1920, and that colors
were not employed by them in blanket.
making until 1900 In other words, the
Navajo squaw became a master crafts.
man scarcely more than a hundred
years ago, but in a single century OF
development her work has been pro
nounced high type of barbaric art
and eagerly sought after by numerous
collectors.
Another unexpected turn to Navajo
| blanket making is that among the elab
orately designed blankets no two are
alike. The squaw wants no picture
! nor finished blanket to copy She
weaves from memory and from the life
around her. Jagged terraces of lines
are the mountains. Rows of square
! figures are Indian villages. Red lines
are sunbeams and zigzag lines are
lightning.
| Connoisseurs have shown weaver
| a particularly admired pattern anc
asked for a duplicate The Navajo
J agrees wonderingly. and sits down tt
work. But at some stage the idea thai
| the white man can really want me
chanical copy grows too impossible fol
| her to understand, or else she is car
ried 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 blanke
that appeals to her fancy. Yet-agaiI
! the paradox of the Navaho-the mas
ter weavers do not attempt to turn gu
perfect work. 1t may be that the race
holds to the Oriental belief that only
Allah can achieve perfection, and tina
j 1t is fitting for men to acknowledge
their human estate by deliberately fall
ing a little short. Whatever the the
DRY, the Navajo weaver, with all he
skill, does not try to make her stripe
of textile perfect. She may have three
triangles in a design in one corner anC
four in the other. Such a defect i!
! obviously intentional because tn,
weavers achieve fine patterns and cal
/ repeat tiny motif exactly all arounC
q blanket when desired
The Navahos are the only people
( who can thoroughly understand the
symbolism of the blanket designs. We
comparatively few of their fine blan
kets are kept for home use.
A squaw weaves the story of he
life or some dramatic incident of triba
history into blanket and goes out t
sell it to a trader Often the story i
i never read because the Navajo ar
i far from loquacious in explaining thei
symbolism to the white man. But az
Tarently the Navajo weaver does no
expect an understanding audience 70
her tale. She satisfies some creativ
instinct by producing the blanket, an,
then she makes another Her owl
tribe now prefers blankets from Amer
lean factories about the home. The
are not art work, but they are lighte
! in weight and cheaper.
! Almost every popular kind of Graf
!, work can be initiated, but the Navah
blanket defies machinery. The color
A a