Adventure in Navajoland: Last day and journey home

This was our last full day in Navajoland and we galloped around trying to squeeze in all the things we had failed to do so far.  After weaving a good part of the early morning, Ana and I walked over to the conference center and museum that is across the road from the Quality Inn.  Impressive building and the museum tells the story of the Navajo people and has great artifacts.  There also was a display of contemporary jewelry by famous Navajo jewelers that was awesome.  The above picture is what looks like a dwarf cone flower that we saw on the walk over and below you can see the walkway to the conference centre and those big monoliths that the locals call Elephant legs or Elephant feet.  I cannot remember now.  I must do a better job in the future of taking notes or writing in my journal.

When we got back to the weaving room, Mary was rounding everyone up to drive over to Window Rock for the class photo.

Here is the rock with the statue of the Navajo Code talker in the foreground.  It is a beautiful spot.

A few class members and Mary walking up to the Rock.  In the background are the governing headquarters of the Navajo Nation.  The little furry guy in the right foreground is Rowdy, our class mascot.

Here is the Rock.  Awesome!

After the class photo we drove over to Ganado to Hubbell trading post.  It isn't very far and we got there in time for the 11am tour.  Hubbell Trading Post and homestead was turned over to the National Park Service by the family in its original condition.  It is wonderful and their website does not do the place justice.  They have a lovely flock of Churro sheep with a guard Lama.  And the trading post looks to be in its original form.

Outside of the Trading post.  The homestead is behind this stone building.  You can see a bit of the white porch sticking out to the right.

The barns and sheds at the far end of the trading post.

Ana standing inside the trading post.  How great is that with the old woodstove in the middle and the horse collars hanging from the rafters.  I really like this place.

This is the front verandah of the homestead.  They told us we could take photos but not use a flash.  It was really dark inside and I am amazed that these photos turned out so well.  You walk into the main sitting room and we were told that the rugs we were standing on were replicas woven by local weavers.  The side bedrooms you were not allowed to enter and all the weavings and furnishings are original.

The walls are covered with works of art by famous artists who passed through.

I really loved seeing all of these original rugs and blankets.  this is the rug in the dining room.  The patterns and colours were exquisite.  I hated walking on it.  The dining room furniture featured rams heads because the wealth of the trader was built largely on the backs of sheep.

This is a hogan shaped guest house.  I would like to stay there!  We didn't get to look in.  This was the domain of the artist in residence.

The first rug to be finished and taken off the loom.  Well done Linda!

Patricia kept stacking up chairs as she progressed up her weaving.  Ana called it Patricia's tuffet.

The place holder.

On Monday early Mary drove Ana and I to Gallup to catch the train back to Albuquerque.  We stopped into a Home Depot so I could get an emergency roll of Duct tape to strap up my broken suitcase for the journey ahead.  At the airport in Albuquerque, Ana and I had lunch together before she departed on this beautiful Continental jet.  She was seated at the first window so I waved to her as the got ready to taxi away.  I was sad and shed a tear or two.  Ana reports that Continental serves snacks on their flights.

I continued on later westward to LAX where I had a wonderful dinner before catching the night flight to Melbourne and on home to Perth.  Gee it really is a long trip.

Below is my finished rug.  I didn't finish it until I got settled at home.

I am not crazy about this first weaving but I was proud to finish it and am currently working on a second one.  Overall the trip was an experience of a life time and I am so glad that my daughter went with me to enjoy the experience.

Navajoland Part 5, A Saturday Shopping in Gallup

Gallup is what I imagine a stereotypical western town to be.  The main drag is along the rail line and the old shopping district only extends a few streets behind that. The residential parts of town are built up on the hill behind over looking the downtown, rail line and wide open spaces beyond.  Ana and I had a rather bad introduction to the place when we arrived on sunday night and descended the train into a torrential downpour.  It was much better to see it on a bright sunny saturday with a group of pleasant female companions who were all armed with credit cards.  And what a place to shop!!!  You could do some serious damage in this town.

Our first stop was Richardson's trading post which is right downtown on the main drag.  They have such a big shop it seems like it takes up the whole block but really it is just four large storefronts.  When you walk in the array of glass jewelry cases takes your breath away.  Mary who is on good terms with the establishment here maneuvered us all behind the counter and into the principle rug room where we were met by an elegant soft spoken gentleman named Larry Fulbright.  He is in charge of the rugs at Richardsons and after introducing himself he pretty much told us we could take our time look at anything we wanted and just come find him if we had any questions.

I didn't take any pictures of the main rug room.  I think I was too dazzled to think of the camera.  It is a huge room with large pallets in the middle of the room stacked with rugs and also along the walls rugs were hanging and folded in stacks according to the style.  Mary took us through each of the styles explaining which part of the reservation they came from and pointing out each one's unique stylistic features.  When we came to the pictoral rugs.  Mary pulled one out and crossed the room to a wall where they had glued long strips of velcro and she put the rug up onto the velcro where it stayed while we looked at it.  It was a beautiful night scene with stars in the sky and some sort of large ceremony going on with lots of figures.  It was beautiful.  We did all this standing behind a life size taxodermically preserved white buffalo! 

Next we got stuck into the pallets in the middle of the floor that had lots of historic weavings.  Mary explained to us how you could date rugs by looking closely at the materials, type of wool, whether it was handspun or plyed commercial yarns and also by what sort of dyes were employed.  We also got stuck into counting numbers of warp threads and weft threads.  The most exciting thing we found in one of the piles was an old rug with a spider hole in it.  The unknowledgeable could be forgiven for thinking it was a large moth hole in the weaving but if you looked at it closely you could see that it had been specifically woven in by the weaver.  Different stories to explain why.  I think it is called a spider hole because it was put there for the spirit of spider woman to crawl out and it is also symbolic of the people climbing from one world into the next which is part of their creation stories.  We also found spirit lines in the weavings.  These are thought to allow the creative spirit of the weaver to escape one rug and move onto the next rug.

We walked on into the second room that had all of the really huge rugs hanging from the ceiling and lots of interesting western artifacts including an entire wagon.

I was fascinated with this wall that was covered by saddles sitting on pegs which extended out from the wall.  Mary said that many people pay to store their saddles here for safe keeping between mustering seasons.  I suppose that a good saddle might also be pawned when a cowpoke was between jobs and down on his luck.

Here is the wagonthat was loaded with interesting furs, bear, mountain lion, zebra and goodness knows what else.  This is obviously the place to come if you need exotic items to decorate your mountain lodge!

On the way out I spied this white buffalo head above the old pawn display area.  Isn't he a beauty?  No wonder the indians thought they were powerful medicine.

I took this photo because I like the colors and simple block pattern in this rug.  At the time I didn't even notcie the small statue and replica pueblo in the foreground.

After what seemed like hours we drove over to our next stop which was Perry Nulls Trading Post.  Here is a picture of the rug area.  Barry and Michelle treated us so well here.  I think they knew they were going to sell us a lot of stuff so in the end they gave up trying to herd us out of the rug area which happened to be behind all the jewelry cases.  They finally just told us to go for it and we had to flag them down when we were ready to make our final purchases.

This was a beautiful rug that Patricia fell in love with.  At first glance I thought it was some kind of unusual wide ruin rug but it was done in dark greens and reds which was unusual.  Mary told us that this color scheme was typical of the Pine Springs area.

Very old pictorial, ceremonial rug.  Even if you could afford it, where would you hang it?  Nonetheless, this one was one of my favorites.

Two of our group pouring over a jewelry case.  Rugs were soon forgotten and left behind for the allure of colorful bobbles.  Barry gave us an indepth lecture and showed us examples of fake turquoise versus the real thing and then showed us examples of how much the turquoise varies from mine to mine. I got scared that my earrings were fakes but he had a look at them and told me he knew the lady that made them and she would never use fake turquoise.  I was so happy about that.

Meanwhile behind us there was a lot of traffic in and out of Navajos pawning large ceremonial pieces.  Mary explained to us that there is an entire economy built on pawned jewelry.  When people are hard up they pawn their pieces.  If they need them for a ceremony they go and get them out on some collateral.  Meanwhile they get their government checks cashed at places like Perry Nulls and they make their down payments on their pawned pieces.  It is fascinating.  Back in the late 60's or early 70's the Navajo Nation decided to ban the practice on the reservation.  This was bad luck for the traders of posts on the reservation but in places like Gallup which are off the reservation you see that the practice continues as much as ever.

Ana bought a beautiful necklace here at Perry Nulls.  It is a very modern piece of inlayed stone with different hinged pieces so that it fits closely against the nape of the neck.  I came away with a very modest turquoise bug pin.  It looks like a beatle about to take flight.  We did so much damage there as a group that Barry followed us out to the car park and stood on the verandah waving goodbye to us with a big smile on his face and telling us to come back again some day. 

All this shopping made us all very hungry so Mary drove us over to Earl's Place.  You could tell this restaurant was going to be good because the car park was jammed.  Both walkways on either side of the restaurant were also jammed with Navajo's selling their wares from card tables.  When we got into the restaurant we felt looking around that we were obviously the minority here as most patrons were Navajo.  After we were seated the merchants started arriving at our table to offer us more goodies for sale.  They were careful to only come around one at a time so that we were'nt overwhelmed.  Well, you'd think we had spent enough at the trading posts, but no!  we all bought a couple more things.  The jewelry was nice and it was really cheap.  Mary explained that they have to jury into a guild to be able to sell there and that anyone who isn't in the guild or who sells fakes gets chased out by the others.

After lunch we headed straight back to Window Rock.  We only had a day and a half to finish our weavings so everyone wanted to get back and make a bit of progress.  The plan was to have pizza for dinner and eat in the weaving room so that we could maximize on the evening.

Then, along came Morris Muskett!  We had been waiting all week for him to come.  I held off on purchases because I knew he would bring something with him that I would want to buy.  Jennie saw him coming across the parking lot and got excited.  I can see why.  Morris has charisma!  He also came laden with jewelry boxes full of his own unique designs.  It was a veritable feeding frenzy.  I came out of it with a beautiful pendant of Changing Woman.  Ana bought one of his dragon fly cross pendants and matching earrings.  After the dust settled he pulled out his personal collection of weavings to show all of us.

Jewellry boxes and checkbooks!  I'm sure it was worth his while to drive from Albuquerque through driving rain to get there.

Here is a picture of the three of us.  Meeting Morris was yet another highlight of the week in Navajo land.  Now that Morris has experienced Convergence he is hoping to go to the weaving conference in Cusco this year.  Morris works as a civil servant but would love to practice his artistic talents full time.  He is becoming more and more well known and had the honor this year of being asked to sit on the board of the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe.  Check out his website:  http://www.morrismuskett.com/

We wish you well on your journey, Morris!

Navajoland Part 4, Four Trading Posts in One Day

Day four took us on another field trip to visit numerous trading posts in the region.  Our first stop was up in the mountains at the now abandoned Crystal trading post.  It has long been abandoned but the building is still standing.  We went there because of the significant role this trading post played in the development of Navajo rug designs due to the vision and foresight of the trader, JB Moore.

I caught Jennie, still weaving in the car on her CCactus flower Maxi loom.  Have loom will travel!!!  Mine fit nicely into my suitcase for the voyage back to Kalgoorlie.

Ana and I standing next to the faded sign.

Ana and Jennie chatting with lovely view behind.

After Crystal we drove higher and higher into the mountains until we came over the crest.  Looking east and below lay the endless flat desert plane.  We could see the Bisti Badlands and farther north stood Shiprock.

I snapped this shot as we zoomed past the small community of Newcomb.  Mary thought the abandoned building behind the white truck might have been Newcomb trading post.  Another important trading post in its day.  One of my rugs is purported to come from this area.  It is still in the region of the Two Grey Hills style of weaving so I am not at all sure one can determine that a rug came from Newcomb unless they knew who wove it.  But I am not an expert and perhaps one day I will have Mary clean my rug and tell me what she knows about it.

Shiprock in all its glory!  It was created by volcanic activity.

We drove past Two Grey Hills and climbed back up the side of the mountains and found Toadlena Trading Post.  This trading post is run by Mark Winter and his family.  He has an incredible museum in the trading post with unbelievable rugs and he is also attributed with restimulating rug weaving in the area.  Two Grey Hills style is characterised by handspun yarns and patterns done in natural colored wool.  Mark has done a lot of historical geneological study of the weavers in this area.  We had an incredible visit here!  It started with Mark giving us a tour of the museum, letting us paw through the stacks of rugs new and old for sale, asking and answering our many questions, a fashion shoot of him and Mary wearing some of the Chief's blankets in his collection, and one of our group buying a rug that a weaver brought in while we were there.  The highlight was sitting outside on the benches enjoying the view when the weaver who spoke no english came out with a truck load of groceries and shook hands with each one of us before she departed.  It was a head spin.

Mark Winter in his museum.

Tapestry quality of weaving something in the order of 80 wefts per inch!

Just as I was thinking that you couldn't possibly decide which rug to buy, I turned the corner and spied this runner by Rose Blueyes.  It sure spoke to me, unfortunately the bank account couldn't handle such a purchase.  My picture doesn't do it justice.  The medium shade of grey almost looks blue.

I found this old huge rug folded up on the floor of the office. The space was too small to spread it out but when Mark passed by he pointed out that the central pattern was a stylised Horned toad.  Horned toads are a symbol of protection.

I thought Phil would have loved all the rusty metal bits assembled around the outside of the trading post.

View from the benches out front of the trading post, looking down into the valley.  You can see the two grey hills that give the region  and the weaving style its name.

The approach to Two Grey Hills.

When we pulled up to the Two Grey Hills Trading Post I had a huge sense of Deja Vu.  I am wondering if I came here at age 15 with Kim Keller and her parents the summer I went to California with them.  I remember we turned north off the highway after we had passed through Albuquerque and we drove a long time through a flat and dusty area before we came to a trading post.  It was hot then and we were annoyed by a drunk navajo teenager who followed us around until the trader came out and spoke kindly to him telling him he was scaring us.  Times have really changed since the 70's on the reservation.  There is no alcohol allowed now and I didn't see anyone at all that looked under the influence.  We were dissappointed not to find the trader home but the young navajo woman that was working took us to see the girls ceremonial dress that she was weaving.  We bought some really nice weaving tools here and I saw some cradle boards made of cedar that I would have loved to purchase!  But how to get one home?

Driving back to Window Rock through the valley.  How green and beautiful everything was.

A Green Hill composed of Serpentine stood out in contrast to the neighboring cliffs in the afternoon sun.

Back at the weaving room we had a lovely visit by Herman and Lula.  This Navajo couple specialize in weaving miniatures.  You can see how small this loom is.  Lula demonstrated how she uses a small metal crochet hook to pull the weft through the shed threads.  The finished product looks like a coaster.  But you wouldn't dare use it as a coaster!!!!  Because of the work involved these miniatures are not cheap.  I suspect it takes an entire day to weave one.  Some people collect them.  Herman told me that there is a poster of a map of the reservation that you can get and frame with small miniatures placed all around it to represent each of the weaving areas.  I came home with a double diamond Ganado miniature. The one shown above is a wide ruins style.

A raised outline miniature in progress.