Bless the Weavers

Hosteen Klah

Hosteen Klah 

Hosteen Klah 

Hosteen Klah 

Hosteen Klah 

Hosteen Klah 

Navajo boy babies are given the name "Away Eskay,” meaning “Baby Boy” until they exhibit some characteristic or some unusual mark is discovered on their bodies to suggest a name.

It was four or five yeas after his birth that Hosteen Klah was given a name that would remain with him the rest of his life. It was noticed that he used his left hand more readily than his right, so he was called “Klah” which means “left handed.”

Klah is the best recognized of all Navajo Medicine Men of the 20th century. It was he who undertook to learn all the sandpaintings associated with various healing ceremonies, and it was he who was the first to record a healing sandpainting in tapestry form. Prior to his doing this, it was fervently believed by the Navajo that doing so would result in serious illness to the perpetrator. When Klah escaped serious illness following weaving a sandpainting rug, he continued making them.

The Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art in Santa Fe was built specifically to house all of Klah’s tapestries, ceremonial effects, and drawings of his sand paintings. It was built in the shape of a Navajo hogan, or traditional house. Unfortunately, Klah passed away just months before the museum was dedicated in his honor. The museum’s name has now been changed to Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian to better define its expanded mission.

Klah was invited by the State of New Mexico to attend the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1934 as the official Medicine Man for the exhibition. He accepted. This photograph was taken shortly before his departure for Chicago.

Spider Woman and Spider Rock

Hazhó'ó naniná

Bless the weavers....

Navajo Ganado Rug, c. 1930

Lorenzo Hubbell, a famous early trader at his post in Ganado, Arizona was the creator of the Ganado Red Navajo rug style. He loved and encouraged the use of deep rich red dyed wool for the background color. Design elements from the early Navajo blankets were incorporated into these Ganado Red rugs.

Today the Ganado rugs will have a red background with accent colors of black, grey, white or brown. The central design features a single or double diamond and four triangles, one in each corner. Other design elements may include hook patterns, simple diagonals and cloud or stair design borders.

Noted weavers would include Sadie Curtis, Ruby Hubbard, Sarah Tisi, and Elverna Vanwinkle.

Robert D. Shorty: Navajo Sculptor

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty

Robert D. Shorty, is an award-winning sculptor, writer, dancer, and actor. He was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona, in 1944. Shorty has been involved with both the performing and the visual arts. He is an actor, dancer, writer, and sculptor.  He studied at the Institute of American Indian Art in Sante Fe, at Bacon Junior College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, had a scholarship in modern dance at the Connecticut School of Dance, and at the Mary Antony Dance Studio in New York City.  He is an original member of the American Indian Theatre Ensemble, La Mama Experimental Theater Club, in New York City, and has appeared in dancing and acting roles across the country

Robert D. Shorty, Diné, statement

"In 1964, I heard of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My father drove me there from Northern Utah. Next morning we prayed a long prayer leaving me to start my life changing adventure. It was a melting pot of creativity! It was then I took my first sculpture class.  Mr. Allan Houser was my teacher from 1964 to1967. It was then my journey in three-dimensional design began … within the time I took my first sculpture class. Prior to that I took classes at the largest off-reservation boarding school at Intermountain Vocational Indian School, in Brigham City, Utah. Mr. Houser was the art teacher, he taught painting. Mr. Houser was amused by my curiosity as I gazed at his painting. He encouraged me. All I knew I was having fun. Always unconsciously creating and enjoying myself."

Modern Navajo Weavings in the Traditional Styles

Navajo weaver Treva Peshlakai of Kirtland, New Mexico wove her Second Phase Chief’s rug in the size 60” wide x 55” high. All single-ply weft yarn is 100% Navajo Churro Sheep wool. The design replicates a Classic/Late Classic Period, 12-spot Second Phase Chief's Blanket. The hand-dyed colors are the authentic indigo blue, and the aniline black, camel tan and red. The two x two-strand warp selvage cords at each end are a black. Treva weaves rugs with two warps inside the outer warp channel for extra strength, instead of weaving weft selvage cords outside the edges of her rugs. The four strands of black cords on the ends are knotted into tassels at the corners. The warp is mill spun, single ply white wool. The woven density is eight warps per inch and 28 wefts per inch.

Wes Willie Navajo Jewlery: In the Tradition of Charles Loloma

Wes Willie and a few other Navajo silversmiths have embraced the designs of Charles Loloma so well that were it not for hallmarks, It would be difficult to discern the difference. As a result, Wes Willie is renowned for his "Charles Loloma style" and like Loloma, he uses rare turquoise and gemstones from around the world. These fine gems are quickly disappearing and, of course, prices are escalating as the supply dwindles. Yet, there really is no substitute for expensive turquoise and coral when perfection and beauty are such an important part of the equation -- for collectors, perfection and beauty are the goal itself -- and if history is an indicator of future value, these collectors expect the present day cost of acquisition to be surpassed when these pieces are resold, as the remaining supply of these gems is exhausted.