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This shows a Navajo lady with her baby, busy weaving a rug. (This is a display model, and not a real person) That is a true small weaving she is working on, and accurately depicts the way these Navajo weavers work.
The Navajo Yei rug comes from the Shiprock region of the Navajo reservation. That region extends from Shiprock southwest to Rattlesnake and Redrock. After the turn of the twentieth century, Will Evans of Shiprock Trading Company asked the weavers of the region to portray Yeis, the supernatural beings who communicate between the Navajo people and their gods into their weavings. The first Yei rugs were woven as taboo, because the figures were taken from sacred sand paintings from healing ceremonies. Navajo Yei rugs are not used in Navajo worship, they are not prayer rugs.
The Navajo Yei rug has a white or light colored background. There are three to six Yei figures in a rug. The Yeis are tall and slender bearing ceremonial appearances. The Yei's face normally faces outward. The rugs may have a border, but most Yei rugs do not have a border. In the elaborate Yei rugs, three sides of the rug are marked off by the elongated body of the "Rainbow Goddess."
However, the common use today is for wall hangings and other decorational use.
Navajo came to the southwest with their own weaving traditions; however, they learned to weave cotton on upright looms from Pueblo peoples. The first Spaniards to visit the region wrote about seeing Navajo blankets. By the 18th century the Navajo had begun to import Bayeta red yarn to supplement local black, grey, and white wool, as well as wool dyed with indigo. Using an upright loom, the Navajo made extremely fine utilitarian blankets that were collected by Ute and Plains Indians. These Chief's Blankets, so called because only chiefs or very wealthy individuals could afford them, were characterized by distinct styles.
These included "Two Gray Hills" (predominantly black and white, with traditional patterns); Teec Nos Pos (colorful, with very extensive patterns); "Ganado" (founded by Don Lorenzo Hubbell), red-dominated patterns with black and white; "Crystal" (founded by J. B. Moore); oriental and Persian styles (almost always with natural dyes); "Wide Ruins", "Chinlee", banded geometric patterns; "Klagetoh", diamond-type patterns; "Red Mesa" and bold diamond patterns. Many of these patterns exhibit a fourfold symmetry, which is thought to embody traditional ideas about harmony.
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