Navajo Crafts

Jewelry
    Like their sheep, the Navajo inherited the making of silver jewelry from the New Mexicans. Originally this jewelry was simply hammered from Mexican silver coins and the old concho belts and necklaces, like the one worn by Marjorie Thomas, show this origin. The navajo soon developed their own style of jewelry like the traditional "squash blossom" necklaces, a sample of which (from the Internet) is shown at right. Semi-precious stones, especially turquoise, are also used in the jewelry, as shown in the traditional rosette at left. Today, wherever tourists might stop on the reservation, there are many tables and covered stands where enterprising Navajo are selling silver jewelry, usually very inexpensive - and much of it not very good.
    In our class on Native Jewelry on Tuesday we found out that Jerry and Wilma Begay, our coordinators, were also our instructors, because they are both jewelers. Actually, this is their main source of income - coordinating Elderhostel classes is only a side job. Wilma made a point that they were not silversmiths but jewelers - because they also make gold jewelry. Jerry removed the table cloth from one of the tables in our lecture room and within minutes he had set up a jewelry shop in which the two actually demonstrated the creation of a pendant.
    Today jewelry is not longer made from Mexican silver coins but the raw material - sterling silver or 18 kt or 14 kt gold - is bought from a supplier. The material comes in the form of sheets and wire. Most jewelry is made not by casting, but by joining individual parts by soldering (actually brazing, as the hard solder is a silver alloy rather than a lead-tin alloy with a lower melting point).
   Jerry and Wilma, while they make traditional jewelry - the turquoise rosette at left is their work, specialize in contemporary designs. In their trademark design they built up the body of a jewelry piece from layers. The photo at right shows how Wilma cuts out a pattern with a jigsaw from a thinner overlay sheet. Jerry flattens the sheet on an anvil, applies a flux and then solders it to a thicker foundation, using a simple propane torch to apply the heat. After the soldered pendant has cooled, Wilma uses simple steel tools to add embossed details to the cut-out pattern. After the other side, actually the front of the (etched), a blackening chemical is pendant has been completed it is "pickled" applied to the cut-out and the finished pendant is polished and the semi-precious stone is cemented into place (the Begays did not demonstrate these steps). The results are shown at left: the charming image of a Navajo woman in front of a Hogan and weaving a rug. Wilma said, that this image was to honor Jerrie's mother, who was a weaver. A view of the front of the two pendants is shown at right. The Begays had brought some other samples of their work. A silver bracelet shows that the inside has the same type of cut-out pattern as the pendants. A gold bracelet of a contemporary design with an elaborate inlay of various semi-precious stones is shown at right.

    The four close-up shots of the jewelry were taken by one of our classmates, Art Schwartz, with a digital camera, using only the natural (fluorescent) lighting in the room. I am very impressed with the quality of the photos, which Art sent me as e-mail attachments.

    Apparently not all of the jewelry sold as "Indian" is really made by members of an Indian tribe. I read somewhere, that a village in China changed its name to "Zuni" to market "authentic Zuni crafts". The Indian Arts and Crafts Association(IACA), of which the Begays are members, tries to fight this abuse.
    The Begays do not have an Internet website yet (they do have e-mail). Their Business card shows how to get in touch with them if you liked the samples of their jewelry shown.

Woven Rugs
    Long before the arrival of the first Europeans the Navajo women wove fabrics from the fibers of wild cotton (Gossypium Thurberi), a shrub which grows in the Southwest. When the first Spanish-Mexican farmers arrived in the South-West they brought along flocks of sheep. Soon some of the sheep ended up with the Navajo and a new chapter in the history of the Diné began. The sheep were of an archaic breed, the Churra, a name that was later corrupted to "Churro". Their wool had an unusual feature: it was very low in Lanolin or "wool fat", and did not require extensive washing like the wool from modern breeds. Soon wool from their flocks of sheep replaced the wild cotton and the Diné women began to weave saddle blankets and larger sleeping blankets.
    Randy Davis presented a lecture with the title "From Sheep to Rugs". Randy is a park ranger at Canyon de Chelly, but he is also a collector of Navajo rugs and he showed us samples from his private collection. Originally the rugs were strictly utilitarian and their pattern consisted only of a few horizontal stripes in colors representing the color of the sheep. It were the American owners of the trading posts who suggested that the weavers produce more elaborate patterns, so the rugs would fetch a better price from the tourists. The Diné women followed the advise and a number of rug patterns developed - each following the personal taste of the trader. The website of the Hubbell Trading Post,now a National Historic Site, shows these patterns and has additional information about Navajo Rugs. Lorenzo Hubbell, whose trading post was near Ganado, for example, liked red. This posed a problem, however, because with the local vegetal dyes, the only ones available, one cannot obtain a red color. In Europe since the 13 th century the red dye Alizarin had been made from the ground-up roots of the Dyer's Madder (Rubia Tinctorum), an indigenous bush (we learned about this plant on an Elderhostel trip to Greece). The Diné women found a way to obtain red wool: they unravelled discarded red "union suit" underwear from the army posts and later used imported red "Bayeta" wool cloth from the trading posts. Later they used dyed wool which came from Germantown. PA. Today synthetic dyes are available which can be obtained in all colors of the rainbow. It was Spider woman, the one who lives on top of spider rock, who had taught the Navajo weaving and originally the weaver honored her by leaving a little hole, like the center of a spider web, in each rug they made. However, the traders convinced them, that the tourists did not want rugs with holes, and the tradition is not followed any more.
   Originally the only rugs woven had abstract patterns, some of them very elaborate. However, the tourists wanted other patterns, so the weavers complied and today one can get rugs with all kinds of designs. Some replicate the patterns of the sand paintings used in their religious ceremonies. Others depict scenes from Navajo life. The photo at right shows one of our class mates with an elaborate Yei-rug, which she bought from a older woman who was an instructor in the weaving room of the Diné College.
    The whole process, from sheep to rug, is not very high-tech, and during our field trips we had a chance to see the steps. Suzy Jazzie, the 93-year old lady we met in Monument valley demonstrated how the wool is first carded, a process by which the fibers are aligned by pulling them repeatedly between two metal carding brushes (originally the women used thistles for this purpose). To spin the wool a simple spindle with a wooden flywheel is used. The spindle is "powered" by rolling it with the flat hand on the thigh, as Suzie demonstrates - it can't be much simpler. The spun wool is then formed into loose skeins for dying. Today many weavers, apparently, buy ready-made wool (the gift shop of the Thunderbird Lodge had a large selection of colors).
    The loom, as shown at right, can be assembled from straight tree trunks (the looms at Diné College were made from 2-by-4's). The photo, of course, is not of a real loom but of a charming model Kathleen bought in the gift shop of the Holiday Inn. Nevertheless, it shows the two warp booms, between which the vertical warp threads are wound. Above the partially finished rug one can see a flat shed-stick, which is used to spread alternate warp threads to form the shed, into which the (horizontal) weft threads are then placed. The weft is then beaten down with a heavy wooden beater comb, shown at right (the weaver is holding it upside-down to use its pointed handle to count off warp threads). The pattern is created by inserting varying length of threads of different colors (one can see their ends hanging down). Because the threads are fairly short, no shuttles are being used. Once a weft has been beaten down, the shed-stick is pulled out and the warp threads are changed by pulling on the heddle stick, which has loops of a thread which go around alternate warp threads. The shed-stick is then inserted again and the next weft can begin. It is a very cumbersome process and it takes a long time to finish a rug. The finished product should be perfectly square. The photo shows threads going to the loom frame which help a beginner to keep the rug from ending up hourglass-shaped. (In case you wonder how I know so much about weaving: some years back I did a literature search about the history of the punched cards for computers. One of their ancestors is the Jacquard loom from 1805, which used similar cards to weave patterns).

Music and Musical Instruments
    One evening we had a presentation by Travis Terry, a native flute player. He is apparently very well known and played at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, UT (unfortunately I missed him watching the ceremony on TV). He had a number of different flutes along and demonstrated several different types.
    I do not play a musical instrument, but I knew the recorder, which is very popular as a beginners instrument in my native Germany, where it is called a "Blockflöte". If you want to know how a recorder works, I found a website which describes it in detail. Of course I expected the Indian Flute to be build like a recorder, because it looks and sounds very similar - however I was quite wrong. In a recorder the body of the flute is drilled through and a round wood block is inserted, which on top is flattened to provide an air channel from the mouth piece to the top of the resonating chamber of the flute. The cross section of an Indian Flute is shown in the drawing below, which I found on the Internet. Here the air flows through a groove in an external part, called a "bird", which is attached to the flute barrel with a leather thong.
    Some of the flutes Travis had brought along had actually two barrels. The second barrel of these flutes, one of which Travis plays in the photo at left, acts similar to the drone pipes of a bagpipe, which play the bass notes.
    Travis played short pieces on several of his flutes. His music was wonderful.

"Navajo Kachinas"
    The first Kachina I ever saw was in the J.C. Penney store in Laguna Hills. There were several groups of unusual figures, apparently wood-carved and painted. One group was labelled "Navajo Kachinas", another group "Hopi Kachinas". The Hopi Kachinas were in a locked glass case. I asked a store employee about the difference, she said "the Hopi Kachinas are much more expensive, that is why we keep them locked up".
    It was not until a few years later, when we attended an Elderhostel class on the Hopi reservation, that I found that most of what one hears about Kachinas is wrong. So, here is some of what I learned:
    The Hopi language does not have a "ch" sound and the Hopi pronounce the word "Katsina", plural Katsinam (I will continue to use the conventional spelling nevertheless).
    The Katchinas are benevolent spirits, which play a very important part in the Hopi religion (which is quite different from the religion of the Diné). During the religious ceremonies of the Hopi these spirits are represented by persons wearing life-size Kachina Masks, which are considered sacred objects. I read somewhere that a few Kachina Masks are in a museum and that the Hopi try very hard to get them back, because of their religious importance. If you want to know more about Kachinas, there is a website with more information.
    There are about 30 main Katchinas and over hundred secondary ones. To teach their children about the various Kachinas, the Hopi, beginning a long time ago, carved Kachina Dolls for their children.
    Originally these Kachina Dolls were simple round dowels, painted to show the characteristics of the different Katchinas. Today one seldom finds this type, but I spotted one at Hopi Fine Arts, a gallery off State Highway 264 in Second Mesa. This Kachina Doll is shown in the photo at right. What were originally simple teaching tools for children over the years became elaborate pieces folk art, which are made for tourists and collectors. The photo at left shows the charming doll of a mud head or Koyemsi, one of the ancillary figures of the Kachina ceremonies, which I bought from one of the villagers in Sichomovi on the First Mesa. Museums-quality Kachina Dolls, often from well-known carvers, sell for hundreds of Dollars and are collectors items. The late Senator Barry Goldwater was a well-known collector who donated his collection of 437 Kachina Dolls to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ.
    When they saw that there was a market for those thinks, enterprising Navajo craftsmen also started carving Kachina Dolls, or, as the website of the Navajo Coop Store in Thoreau, New Mexico states : "In recent years many Native Americans including the Navajo, have embraced the creation of Kachina figurines." At the gift shop of the Meteor Crater, off Interstate 40, I saw rows of Kachina Dolls, labeled "Navajo Kachinas", each with a "Certificate of Authenticity" showing the Navajo Carver who had done it.
    If you see such a figure that you like, I don't see why you should not buy it. However, be aware that it is not a "Navajo Kachina", because there is no such thing. It is a Kachina Doll or figurine, which represents one of the benevolent spirits of the Hopi religion, however, it was carved by a Navajo craftsman.