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.