A Weave of Time
odd: label: Local Number
content: HSFA 2011.12.1
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Fanshel, Susan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Susan Fanshel films of the Navajo
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Film reels (60 minutes, color sound; 2199 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1986
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Edited film examines issues of cultural transition and education, religion and economic survival of a contemporary Navajo family as explored through three generations of the Burnside family living on the Navajo Reservation. Film incorporates historical film footage shot by anthropologist John Adair in1938 of the Burnside family in Pine Springs, Arizona, including Tom Burnside, a well known silversmith, and Mary Burnside, a well-known weaver of vegetal dye Navajo rugs. Film centers on the the third generation, the Deschinny family (Isabel Burnside, granddaughter of Mary Burnside Meyers, and Daniel Deschinny, Sr. and their four children) as they talk about their time in the Washington, D.C. area while Daniel studied for his law degree, his struggles to build a private law practice, his persistence in learning Navajo rituals, Isabel's education in a parochial school, her struggles to economically support the family through weaving and making dye charts, her desire to return to school to complete her education, the children's further remove from Navajo traditions and the loss of Navajo language. Shown are various scenes on the Navajo Reservation including negotiations for selling rugs at a trading post; a Navajo blessing and a Catholic blessing of the Deschinny's new home and a picnic with the extended Burnside family and John Adair.