Woven Blanket
date: label: Accession Date
content: 4 Nov 1931
name: label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Johanna Williamson
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Period of 1880. Colors, brownish black and white (natural colors). Isolated design in black on a field of white. Diagonal weave. "Swastika and cross patterns, twilled." - Hough."
label: Notes
content: Swastika designs include both left-facing and right-facing swastikas. Note: the swastika design on this blanket is actually what is usually called the Navajo "whirling log" symbol. It is in no way related to the Nazi swastika. In 1940, in response to Hitler's regime, the Navajo, Papago, Apache and Hopi people signed a whirling log proclamation. It read, "Because the above ornament, which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries, has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples, therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly known today as the swastika . . . on our blankets, baskets, art objects, sand paintings and clothing." Reference: The Swastika Symbol in Navajo Textiles by Dennis J. Aigner. DAI Press, Laguna Beach, California, 2000. The swastika was also popular in the early 20th century in Europe and North America as a good luck symbol and was sometimes used decoratively in that sense on objects produced for the tourist market.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 31 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Arizona, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Navajo (Diné)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 117060
label: USNM Number
content: E362449-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Blanket