History Detectives

NAVAJO RUG

AIRING: Season 7, Episode 4
THE DETECTIVE: Eduardo Pagán
THE PLACE: Crownpoint, New Mexico

THE CASE:

History Detectives investigates the mystery behind an unusual Navajo rug.

We meet with a Navajo medicine man and a traditional Navajo weaver. We travel to Crownpoint, New Mexico, long considered the center of Navajo weaving to discover if a weaver violated a taboo to create this rug.

Finally, History Detectives visits a textile historian to find out who may have been behind this controversial design.

Web page includes links to view the episode online (20 minute video), download a transcript, view an interview with a medicine man.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/704_navajorug.html

 

Have a good day!

Franco Rios

Comments

Mon, 08/03/2009 - 21:23

francorios (not verified)

Navajo Rug on PBS Antiques Roadshow
Also check out this article on PBS Antiques Roadshow

Interesting rug with locomotive woven into it.

You can view the picture and read the appraisal transcript
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200803A29.html

I found it with the search words "navajo weaving diagonal"

Have a good day!

Sun, 08/02/2009 - 23:38

sgt_majorette (not verified)

Since I joined this group, I've been collecting books on Navajo weaving, and I'm proud to say I guessed the "problem" right away!

All the books talk about the prohibition against making a permanent version of a sand painting. They say a weaver who agreed to make one would need to have some kind of blessing done to protect her, and most of them just won't do it, period.

It was interesting to hear the medicine man explain it, though: that spirits are called on to help, and then the sand painting is destroyed to release the spirit. I can see how it would be problematical to keep a spirit who came to help you trapped!

--jayne

Mon, 08/03/2009 - 00:48

whorlwindweaver (not verified)

A fascinating video.  It is worth watching.

Wed, 08/05/2009 - 18:03

francorios (not verified)

I didn't know what the taboo was. Now I know.

Interesting that depictions of actual people are okay, but not spirits, but I suppose it makes sense from their perspective.

I didn't know the "whirling logs" picture, which most of us know as the swastika, is one of the items in the taboo.

Just an interesting story overall.

Have a good day!

Wed, 08/05/2009 - 21:49

sgt_majorette (not verified)

You could do people or spirits in a regular design, and the whirling logs, or sun wheel, was used extensively before WWII made it less marketable; you're just not supposed to make a permanent version of a sand painting.

The sand painting is part of a curative ceremony and should be destroyed as soon as the ceremony is finished. Besides not letting an honored guest (the spirit) leave after he's done you a favor, it might also be like keeping leftover antibiotics.

The Navajo weavers seem otherwise pretty pragmatic about their designs. They do a lot of commissioned work, and a lot of the named styles represent the taste of the white men who established the trading posts. There seems to be a good working relationship between the traders and the weavers, on the whole. Reminds me a bit about the Russian Tatar women who make the Orenburg shawls.

--jayne

Group Audience
Navajo Weaving Techniques