Saturday, July 29, 2023

Navajo Rugs of Chinle, Wide Ruins and Teec Nos Pos Regions [1]
Art Essay

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience, I have listed below posts that also focus on rugs.
Navajo Rugs
Persian Rugs
Caucasian Rugs
Turkish Rugs
Navajo Rugs of the Ganado, Crystal and Two Grey Hills Region
Navajo Rugs of Chinle, Wide Ruins and Teec Nos Pos Regions
Navajo Rugs of the Western Reservation


Navajo Rugs of Chinle, Wide Ruins and Teec Nos Pos Regions [1]
Navajo Rugs of Chinle Region
Due north of Ganado on the State Highway 63, Chinle sprawls at the mouth of Canyon de Chelly, a Navajo sanctuary.

Chinle,Arizona
Chinle, Arizona.

A national monument, but still under Navajo ownership, Canyon de Chelly was the last refuge of the diné (Navajo people) during their times of greatest trouble. The canyon slashes a series of gorges into the red sanstone of the Defiance Plateau. Sheer, smooth walls rise nearly a thousand feet to surround monolithic spires taller than Manhatten skyscrapers. Ancient ruins cling to niches in the mineral-stained walls.

In memory of oldtimers Chinle rugs were tightly packed and of generally good quality from the turn of the century to the 1930s. As for design, they were undistinguishable from rugs made throughout the reservation: black border, big central diamond in terrace red, gray and black.

At Chinle today many, but not all weavers, spin and dye their yarn. The weft is relatively coarse, and during weaving weft threads are not packed down hard. The result is a thick, textured rug. Some weavers incorporate the Crystal wavy-line weft treatment into band designs.

Two faced weave
Comment [1]: Doubly distinguished in this two-faced weave in border-to-border strikes and small geometric designs by Mabel Burnside Myers.
Courtesy: Read Mullan Collection.

Navajo Rugs of the Wide Ruins Region

Wide Ruins Community School
Wide Ruins Community School.

Another region participating in the so called vegetal revival surrounds the trading post of Wide Ruins, Burnt Water and Pine Springs. The land of cedar breaks, sandy water courses and rolling roadways lies along the south-central border of Navajoland.

When, in 1938, Bill and Sallie Wagner Lippincott took over the Wide Ruins post, they induced their weavers to turn to colors extracted from nature and imparted to reservation-grown wool. The Lippincotts refused to accept inferior weaving. They encouraged a return to old-style elements - connected diamonds and triangles, lines of rhomboids and alternating straight lines extending from edge to edge without a border.

Wide Ruin Rug
Comment [1]: Two-faced Wide Ruins rug by Agnes Smith of natural and vegetal-dyed handspun yarn, with 35 wefts per inch each side, 23 x 39 inches.
Courtesy: Ray Gwilliam Collection.

Tapestry
Comment [1]: Warm and lively threads radiate from this tapestry in vegetal dyes by Philomena Yazzie, winner of first prizes at the 1971 New Mexico State Fair and 1972 Arizona State Fair.
Courtesy: Read Mullan Collection.

Handspun fabric
Comment [1]: A vegetal-dyed handspun rug by Ellen Smith.
Courtesy: Ray Gwilliam Collection.

Navajo Rug
Comment [1]: A touch of pink excites this Wide Ruins rug done in 1960 by Lottie Thompson. Stripes of tiny trapzoids are reminiscent of Navajo weaving of more than a century ago.
Courtesy: Read Mullan Collection.

Navajo Rugs of Teec Nos Pos

Trading Post
Trading Post at Teec Nos Pos.

Nothern most of Navajo weaving regions is Teec Nos Pros (Circle of Cottonwoods) near Four Corners, where Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico join at a common point. At a surveying monument, it is possible for agile visitors, on hands and knees, to occupy four states at once!

The weaving region encompasses the area around Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, and Beclabito, New Mexico.

Navajo Rug
Comment [1]: A black and gold border brightens this weaving by Hilda Begay in Teec Nos Pos style, 27 wefts per inch, 55 x 72 inches.
Courtesy: Ray Gwilliam Collection.

Tapestry
Comment [1]: Worthy of blue ribbons is this Teec Nos Pos tapestry of commercial yarns by Ruth Yabany, 85 x 144 inches.
Courtesy: Clay Lockett Collection.

Navajo Rug
Comment [1]: Teec Nos Pos tapestry of commercial yarns. Weaver unknown. 43 x 62 inches.
Courtesy [1]: Read Mullan Collection.


Reference:
[1] D. Dedera, Navajo Rugs, Northland Publishing, Flagstaff, Arizona (1990).

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