Two recent exhibitions looked at the multiple stories woven into textiles. Navajo Textiles: Diamonds, Dreams, and Landscapes was a year-long exhibition in three themed rotations held at the University of Colorado’s Museum of Natural History in Boulder, Colorado (May 31, 2009 – May 31, 2010). Trading Cloth and Culture was the spring exhibition at the Arizona State University’s Museum of Anthropology (April 8 – June 30, 2010). Both were created under the supervision of Judy M. Newland, the director of ASU’s Museum of Anthropology. In a two-part series, Newland and other members of the faculty and staff at ASU and CU have worked together to produce an important and unique narrative regarding the Native American culture of the Southwest and the important role that woven artifacts have played in understanding the indigenous communities of the far west and the global influences that affect the design work, even today. All pieces pictured are from the University of Colorado textile collection Fine Arts Magazine

The Story Within The Threads

The University of Colorado, Museum of Natural History, in Boulder, Colorado has a marvelous record of celebrating Southwestern textiles. In their latest exhibition, Navajo Weaving: Diamonds, Dreams, Landscapes, more than ninety textiles were featured in three themed rotations, each with a different stylistic emphasis.

While exploring the approach taken for the exhibition, I thought about my Navajo friends and my own weaving background, and discovered that a friend from my past, Melanie Yazzie, is now an art professor at Colorado University (CU). After reconnecting and discussing ideas, we decided to collaborate. She brings a unique perspective to the project. She grew up near Ganado, on the Navajo reservation, where she watched her grandmother weave. As a printmaker, she brings all of these influences to bear in her own work. We spent countless hours looking at wonderful textiles and contemplating the weavers and their lives. During this process, themes emerged, and we eventually divided the textiles into groups to be exhibited in three rotations. Our collaboration brought a special point of view to the show, as she provided a sensitive cultural and artistic context to my love of weaving and exhibit development.

The Joe Ben Wheat Collection, at the University of Colorado, Museum of Natural History, is a world-class assemblage, encompassing more than 800 fine textiles from three Southwestern traditions – Pueblo, Navajo and Spanish American. The late Joe Ben Wheat, a CU professor and curator, was one of the great scholars of Southwestern textiles. He began his research at the university in 1972, developing the collection into one of the most historically and culturally significant collections in the country. Wheat not only identified and documented many rare pieces, but he studied the stories, people and culture behind the textiles. His systematic approach to the study of textiles established a foundation on which textile scholars have continued to build.

The collection is particularly strong in pieces for which Wheat was able to establish historical dates. They include, among others: the oldest documented Navajo blanket, collected by a US army officer in 1847 during the Mexican War; a wedge weave blanket woven about 1875 by a Navajo servant of a Hispanic household in southwestern Colorado and a rare “blue border manta” from about 1750, thought to be Pueblo, but later determined by Wheat to be a very early Navajo weaving. These documented pieces and Wheat’s dedication to using multiple research tools to compare and corroborate evidence established this rich research collection, which continues to grow through donations and purchases.

These treasured pieces have been exhibited many times, and are often featured in special programs and behind-the-scenes tours. The new exhibition, however, showcased the depth of the collection and included textiles never before been exhibited; a small number of 19th century rugs with the majority of pieces from the 20th century. The museum’s Navajo textile collection is part of a larger Southwestern tradition and illustrates many cross-cultural influences from Pueblo and Hispanic weavers. The borrowing of ideas and motifs is clearly seen in the textiles on display. Many of the Navajo textiles are woven by anonymous weavers and only fragments of their historical significance remain.

The first rotation, Diamonds and Beyond, focused on the diamond motif and included textiles that are vibrant in color and design. Navajo weavers have long used the diamond as a central element in their rugs and blankets. The earliest classic striped textiles were energized with the expressive use of diamonds, helping us see shapes or break them down, leading the eye on a path across the surface. They are also used as an organizing principle to make sense of the movement and activity contained in diagonal and zigzag lines. The visual power and graphic quality found in these designs is a testament to the creativity of generations of Navajo weavers. An emphasis on the contemporary weaver’s approach to design and the arrangement of design elements within each textile was highlighted through the work of rising star, Morris Muskett, a Navajo weaver and jewelry maker, who has several pieces in the Boulder collection, which also includes award-winning weavings from the Santa Fe Indian Market.

The second rotation, Dreams, Schemes, and Stories, include narrative and image-based weavings, focused on the multiple approaches weavers use when designing textiles. Rugs developed in the 1880s contain innovative combinations of abstract patterns and pictorial elements such feathers, bows and arrows, cowboys, trains and all manner of animals; all reflecting changes occurring in the Southwest at that time. The contemporary piece by, Glenmae Tsosie, acquired in 1972, is a wonderful reinterpretation of modern art. Several ‘Storm’ pattern rugs show strong development of schemes, probably devised by traders. A large number of textiles using yei and yeibichei figures drawn from sacred imagery were on display during this rotation, including a unique vest with a yei figure on the front and back.

The third rotation, Landscapes, featured a variety of Wide Ruins, Chinle, and Crystal-style rugs, demonstrating how the Southwestern landscape influenced Navajo cultural and artistic traditions. Many of these textiles are made with yarns dyed with plants from the Navajo reservation. In this portion of the show, special emphasis is given to the art of natural dyeing and the aesthetic impact of color.

Weaving comes from life experiences, the landscape, family, community and the outside world. Navajo weaving is a cultural expression in which each rug contains a woven history of the people. Change has been a constant in Navajo weaving. Designs and colors have evolved over the centuries, due to outside influences. Yet, the techniques have always remained the same. Weavers combined an individual sense of creativity and innovation with a practical approach to the market, and made textiles that reflected their shifting world. Even today, as designs, colors and materials change, the Navajo aesthetic remains recognizable and continues to produce visually exciting textiles that spring from this rich cultural landscape.

The makers of these textiles created extraordinary complex and exacting designs, often with a whimsical twist. They were woven for sale and trade and the threads contain personal and cultural stories, expressing the lives and land of the Navajo people. We may not know the individual stories of each weaver, but we do know that each one had a story contained within the threads. As weavers, spinners and dyers, we may appreciate the finely spun yarns, the beautifully dyed wool, or pleasing designs. As collectors, we may connect with an object that reminds us of favorites in our collection and of Navajo weavers and artists whom we know. These objects confirm that tradition and culture are not static, but continually transforming, as influences from the outside world bring change and innovation to a textile tradition that has survived despite many challenges. But the life of these weavers cannot be reduced to an object or text on a wall. Each textile reflects the personal and cultural beauty the weaver put into her creation. Each has a life of its own that continues to inspire. What more could a weaver hope for?

Textiles as Material Culture

Textiles are often forgotten or underrepresented in the archaeological record because most do not survive. Only those preserved in dry deserts, salty regions, and peat bogs linger long enough to add to the material culture record that consists mostly of ceramics, metal, and architecture. Cloth became common around 4,000 B.C. and textile production soon became the most important ancient industry (Barber, 21). In the Ancient Andes, cloth was more highly valued than gold or silver, the more hours devoted to production the greater value of the cloth (Murra). Too often textiles are part of a woven history that is ignored or forgotten. Most of us take our textiles for granted since we are so far removed from the production process. But before the Industrial Revolution everyone understood how textiles were made because they saw the making of thread and cloth at home every day. The average person spent more time making cloth than they did on food production. It is easy for us to forget the significant role textiles played in the past and how these artifacts can inform our research.

In many cases we choose textiles for exhibition that have no history or only a partial provenance. Museum collections often contain objects with incomplete histories and we must seek out the hidden stories in the cloth. Many Navajo textiles in the exhibition Diamonds, Dreams, Landscapes, had no documentation on the maker. They were collected at a time when knowing the maker was not seen as important or the information was already lost due to trade.

The curatorial approach used for the Navajo textile exhibit was to focus on weaving as a dynamic, living experience that continues to be part of Navajo life. Navajo people and their culture are still vibrant, growing, and changing. The weavers are flexible craftspeople, innovative designers and the determined culture bearers for the Navajo Nation. My work on this exhibition sought to honor the legacy of Joe Ben Wheat’s approach to textile studies and museum stewardship; to use multiple research methods, to search out the lives and stories embedded in these weavings and to remember that a dynamic culture lives at the heart of the exhibition where life and art are intertwined.

by Judy Newland, MA, MS, Contributing Writer

Judy Newland is faculty associate in museum anthropology at Arizona State University and serves as the Director and Curator of Exhibitions for the ASU Museum of Anthropology. She has worked in the museum field for over twelve years at a variety of university museums. She teaches a graduate seminar in Exhibit Design and Development each spring semester. Judy received advanced degrees from at the University of Colorado-Boulder (MS Museum Studies/Anthropology, 2000) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (MA Textile History, 2007). She is a practicing tapestry weaver and her research includes archaeological textile fieldwork and weaving cultural practices around the world. Her research interests also include ancient Andean textiles and the production and meaning of indigo. She has a special interest in weaving in the Southwest.

Learn more at http://asuma.edu  and  http://cumuseum.colorado.edu