Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-27
The HQskin Letter
NAVAJO WEAVING ART.

Washington, D. c., June 24.-Th'
Navajo. weaver have reached a new
height Nf 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
ers knitted in true Navajo %colors, red,
green, yellow, white, and black. Typ
zeal Indian designs-diamonds, zigzags,
even angular human figures-march in
stiff borders across the fashionable
maiden's chest.
The Navajo squaw remains oblivi-
GUS to this final tribute to her art.
Stoically she continues to weave blan-
kets to. supply the never-ending de-
mands of pale face collectors and tour
lists.
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 mysteri-
ous 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 Navajos learned their
craft only since 1920. and that colors
were not employed by them in blanket
making until 1890. In other words,
the Navajo squaw became a master
craftsman scarcely more than hundred
years ago, but in a single century OF
development herr work has been pro-
nounced a 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 zizag lines are
lightning.
Can Not Copy Their Work
Connoisseurs have shown a weaver
a particularly admired pattern and
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. co~nscientiously 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 perfection. and that
it is fitting for men to acknowledge
their human estate by deliberately fall
ing a little short. Whatever the
theory, the Navajo weaver. with al
her skill. does not try to max her
| strip of textile perfect. She may have
three triangles in a design in one cor
ner and four in the other. Such a de
feet is obviously intentional because the
weave achieve fine patterns and car
repeat a tiny motif exactly all around
a blanket when desired.
The Navaios are the only people
who can thoroughly understand the
symbolism of the blanket designs, yet
comparatively few Of their fine blankets
are kept for home use.
A squaw weaves the story of her
life or some dramatic incident of tri-
bal history into a blanket and goes
out to sell it to a trader. Often the
story is never read because the Nava-
jos are far from loquacious in ex-
planning their symbolism TO the white
man. But apparently the Navajo
! weaver does not expect An understand