Red Thunder, Black Borders: The Optic Power of Navajo Textiles

#nativeamericanheritagemonth

Navajo weaving is not a single style but a dense historical fabric; a practice grounded in cosmology and pedagogy, transformed by colonial violence and market forces, and continually renewed by Diné artists who assert sovereignty through fiber. From early mantles and the great nineteenth-century Chief blankets to the saturated “Germantown” experiments and twenty-first-century innovations, the warp of cultural continuity and the weft of creative change make Navajo textiles one of the most dynamic visual traditions in North America.

Diné weaving is taught within a holistic system where technique, story, and ethics intertwine. The upright loom format and tapestry structures, shared with Pueblo neighbors, anchor a pedagogy in which knowledge is transmitted intergenerationally through practice. Fiber historically came from Navajo-Churro sheep; an Iberian breed introduced under Spanish colonialism that Diné herders adapted to Plateau ecologies, producing lustrous, long-staple wool ideally suited to tapestry.

Navajo weaving are textiles produced by Navajo people, who are based near the Four Corners area of the United States. Navajo textiles are highly regarded and have been sought after as trade items for more than 150 years. Commercial production of handwoven blankets and rugs has been an important element of the Navajo economy. As one art historian wrote, "Classic Navajo serapes at their finest equal the delicacy and sophistication of any pre-mechanical loom-woven textile in the world." A contemporary Navajo rug; Navajo Storm Rug.

Weaving remains a family art. Instruction occurs in homes, on land, and in seasonal cycles of herding, shearing, dyeing, and spinning. Women have historically led production, design innovation, and market negotiation, though men also weave; this social organization structures stylistic continuity and experimentation alike. Collaborative curatorial projects, developed with master weavers such as Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas, now foreground Indigenous aesthetics and teaching philosophies in public interpretation.

Serape, ca. 1840–50. Serapes (the Spanish term for blanket) are a prominent form of Navajo weaving. In the early nineteenth century, they became seen as garments of prestige among a range of Southwest residents, as well as a high-value trade item. Vibrantly colored and vividly patterned, these so-called wearing blankets build on long-established design themes. The horizontal lines and diamond shapes of this classic example, referred to by some as a rare "radio-wave" pattern, are characteristic of Southwest Native American design, reflecting varied weaving traditions and artistic exchange among Native and Hispanic communities.

Serape, ca. 1865–70

Seventeenth- to early-nineteenth-century mantles and sarapes reveal intertwined Indigenous and Hispanic trade ecologies. Navajo sarapes adopted a vertical rectangular format associated with Saltillo models while maintaining Diné structures and color logics. Raveled bayeta (commercial red cloth) and indigo entered these textiles via Northern New Mexico and Mexican markets.

First-phase chief's blanket Diné/ Navajo, Native American ca. 1840. Handspun undyed and indigo-dyed Churro fleece and raveled lac-dyed bayeta; Diné blanket, circa 1850, handspun undyed and indigo-dyed Churro fleece and raveled lac-dyed bayeta; A fine and rare Diné (Navajo) Classic Period first phase chief's wearing blanket; Finely woven with a wide central natural single-ply brown field, flanked by thinner bands of three-ply Saxony cochineal-dyed red, single-ply natural cream and indigo bands overlaid on a brown and cream banded ground, with conforming red, indigo, and natural three-ply Saxony pale green-yellow striped accents flanking the center and at each end.

Classic blankets drew on undyed Churro whites, browns, and blacks, with blues from indigo and reds from raveled cochineal- or lac-dyed bayeta; vegetal greens appear through over-dyeing. Technical analysis confirms handspun warps and wefts and sophisticated joinery with characteristic “lazy lines.”

Diné (Navajo) first phase chief blanket, ca. 1840–1850; Chief's blanket, ca. 1865; Chief's blanket, 1855–60; Chief's blanket, 1865–70; America, Native North American, Southwest, Navajo, Post-Contact, Early Peri - Rug (Third-phase Chief Blanket Style, Germantown Weaving); Navajo Third phase wearing blanket, circa 1890-95.

Phase I wearing blankets (ca. 1820s–40s) present bold horizontal bands in undyed and indigo wools with restrained red accents; iconic examples survive in major collections. Phases II and III expand the vocabulary, adding mid-field stripes, then terraced diamonds and stepped motifs, without abandoning the garment function. Objects at the Met and NMAI document materials, scale, and collecting histories that circulated these works far beyond Dinétah. Later “transitional” pieces sometimes termed “Phase IV” register post-1868 change; lighter fabrics, new yarns, and emerging rug weights.

The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, was the deportation and ethnic cleansing of the Navajo people by the United States federal government and the United States army. Navajos were forced to walk from their land in western New Mexico Territory (modern-day Arizona and New Mexico) to Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico. Some 53 different forced marches occurred between August 1864 and the end of 1866. In total, 10,000 Navajos and 500 Mescalero Apache were forced to the internment camp in Bosque Redondo. During the forced march and internment, up to 3,500 people died from starvation and disease over a four-year period. In 1868, the Navajo were allowed to return to their ancestral homeland following the Treaty of Bosque Redondo. Some anthropologists state that the "collective trauma of the Long Walk is critical to contemporary Navajos' sense of identity as a people". Navajo people photographed during the Long Walk.

Between 1863 and 1866 (with return in 1868), the U.S. Army forced Diné families on the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo. Imprisonment devastated herds, constrained dye-plant access, and introduced rationed cloth and yarns. The 1868 treaty’s return enabled cultural rebuilding but under materially altered conditions that shaped fiber supply and design.

Navajo "Eye dazzler" rug, 1875-1920. This Navajo rug, known as an 'Eye Dazzler', and dating from around 1900, is one of a collection of nine rugs assembled in California between 1956 and 1967. 'Eye Dazzlers', named for their striking designs, were made from Germantown 4-ply yarn from the area of that name in Philadelphia. This commercially spun and dyed yarn was coloured by using brilliant aniline dyes. Almost all early Navajo weaving is now held in private and museum collections.

By the late 1860s–70s, three- and four-ply aniline-dyed yarns, mass-produced near Philadelphia, were distributed through Indian Office channels and traders, entering Diné looms alongside handspun. Their consistent spin and saturated palette facilitated tighter counts and complex optical patterning, catalyzing a generation of experiments.

“Eye-dazzler” weavings of the 1880s–90s intensified serrate diamonds and zigzags (in dialogue with Saltillo geometries) using aniline reds, magentas, and yellows or Germantown yarns. Produced as blankets, runners, and hangings, these works signal a pivot from garment to décor and from regional exchange to tourist art.

Rail infrastructure and trading posts (e.g., Hubbell at Ganado; Moore at Crystal) reshaped production. Traders commissioned sizes, borders, and colorways for non-Native buyers; J. B. Moore’s 1903 and 1911 mail-order catalogs disseminated Crystal patterns nationally, while Hubbell’s network consolidated Ganado’s deep-red “house” palette. These systems professionalized sales but also narrowed acceptable designs.

The Ganado Red style of weaving is likely the best known of all Navajo rugs, inspired by Juan Lorenzo Hubbell (founder of the Hubbell Trading Post in 1878 and National Historic Site in Ganado, Arizona). Hubbell was one of the most well-known and respected traders among the Navajo people of his time. Hubbell disliked chemical dyes, which became more widely available around the turn of the century, and encouraged the use of the deep maroon that later became known as Ganado Red; Two Grey Hills Navajo rug with classic stepped diamond medallions worked in handspun natural blacks, whites, and grays, showcasing the region’s hallmark tight weave and intricate geometric symmetry; Vintage Chinle Navajo Runner Rug; Wide Ruins Navajo Weaving; Large Teec Nos Pos Navajo Floor Rug; Handwoven 1910s Navajo J.B. Moore Crystal Weaving.

By the early twentieth century, regional “schools” had coalesced. Ganado’s red fields and black borders; Two Grey Hills’ undyed, finely spun naturals with high weft counts; Crystal’s bordered fields and later vegetal-dye palettes; Wide Ruins and Chinle’s banded vegetal schemes; Teec Nos Pos’ dense, multi-border geometry inflected by Persian sources. Museum summaries and site collections corroborate these profiles.

From the 1910s–30s, traders and weavers in Chinle, Crystal, and Wide Ruins cultivated vegetal dye palettes (rabbitbrush, walnut, etc.), pairing handspun yarns with fine counts to counter gaudy aniline reputations and appeal to Arts-and-Crafts sensibilities. Institutional guides and object records document these revivals, now foundational to banded regional styles.

Storm Pattern Navajo Rug.

A weaving based on a Whirling Log ceremony sand painting by Klah, circa 1925.

Storm Pattern rugs (lightning, clouds, water bugs, four sacred mountains) translate cosmological ordering into bordered fields. Sandpainting-derived imagery, historically associated with ceremonial contexts, entered weaving in the early twentieth century, controversially, through figures such as Hastiin Klah; contemporary practice and museum policy emphasize cultural protocols and consent.

Large Navajo Pictorial Textile; Navajo Pictorial Rug by Fannie Pette; Tree of Life by Emily Malone; Vintage Navajo Tree of Life; Tree of Life Rug; Leroy Yazzie, Rug, Train, Navajo; Navajo pictorial rug with train; Navajo Pictorial Weaving before 1923; Navajo Pictorial Weaving.

Late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century pictorials (sheep camps, trains, traders’ stores, U.S. flags, and the celebrated Tree-of-Life) extend storytelling into the textile field, often addressing modernity, livelihood, and sovereignty with wit and precision. Institutional summaries place pictorials alongside Yei, Storm, and regional categories in collection taxonomies.

Wedge-Weave Blanket, 1880-1890; Wedge Weave Blanket, 1890; Wedge Weave Blanket (Diné), 📸 by Juan Arce; Navajo Saddle blanket; Navajo Cinch; Navajo Transitional Blanket; Early Navajo Twill Blanket.

Beyond standard tapestry weave, Diné artists developed and revived wedge weave (eccentric wefts producing scalloped selvedges and dynamic diagonals), twills, and dense tapestry refinements. Technical overviews and exemplars at the Arizona State Museum situate these as nineteenth-century innovations now experiencing contemporary revival.

Melissa Cody. World Traveler. 2014

Installation view of Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies. 📸: Kris Graves

Contemporary Diné artists fuse Germantown optics, vegetal palettes, and digital sensibilities. Melissa Cody’s Webbed Skies (MoMA PS1, 2024) presents over three dozen weavings that scale eyedazzler logics into layered, interdimensional fields, incorporating atypical fibers and digital patterning while remaining grounded in family lineage.

Melissa Cody, Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Dust); Into the Depths, She Rappels, 2023; Woven in the Stones, 2018; Dopamine Dream, 2023; The night I sleep, I dream, 2017; White Out, 2012; Under Cover of Webbed Skies. 2021.

A cohort extends and reframes Germantown’s saturated geometry, Cody among them, reasserting tapestry as contemporary art rather than ethnographic artifact. Field reportage has tracked techniques like Cody’s tension-blocking of fluffy Germantown yarns to achieve razor-sharp lines, pointing to an intensive, experimental studio practice.

Breed recovery initiatives and land-based education (Navajo-Churro Sheep Association, Navajo Sheep Project, Diné herding programs) link wool quality to food, ceremony, and economic autonomy. Environmental stressors (drought, contamination) threaten herding; nonetheless, Diné shepherds and youth sustain flocks as acts of cultural and ecological stewardship.

Where posts once functioned as banks, shippers, and style brokers, today’s artists increasingly navigate galleries, markets, auctions, and direct online sales; reclaiming price setting and narrative control. Hubbell Trading Post’s ongoing operations and interpretation offer a baseline to assess how artist-led models invert the old trader-centric economy.

Federal protections against misrepresentation are crucial in today’s market. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act (1935; strengthened 1990) prohibits false claims that goods are Native-made; recent prosecutions underscore enforcement. Consumer education, provenance documentation, and tribal authentication programs remain key to safeguarding artists and patrons.

Recent exhibitions emphasize co-curation, collections transparency, and culturally informed care. Shaped by the Loom (Bard Graduate Center/AMNH) reframed textiles through Diné philosophies of land, fiber, and story, while major collections publish rich object records supporting research into materials, dye histories, and collecting contexts.

Across two centuries, Navajo weaving has absorbed and redirected new materials, infrastructures, and markets without relinquishing its aesthetic sovereignty. Chief blankets and Germantown dazzlers are not endpoints but episodes in a longer narrative in which Diné artists continue to tutor the eye, through vegetal hues or digital overlays, on how land, labor, and lineage become form. The contemporary studio, the sheepherding trail, and the museum gallery belong to the same continuum: a living practice whose future is being woven now.

References:.

American Indian Arts and Crafts Board. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1935. U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.doi.gov/iacb/indian-arts-and-crafts-act-1935.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.doi.gov/iacb/act.

Arizona State Museum. 19th Century Navajo Weaving at ASM. University of Arizona, https://statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhibit/19-century-navajo-weaving-asm.

Eye Dazzlers. University of Arizona, https://statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhibit/19-century-navajo-weaving-asm/eye-dazzlers.

Identifying Yarns and Dyes to Tell Time. University of Arizona, https://statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhibit/19-century-navajo-weaving-asm/identifying-yarns-dyes.

Navajo Weaving Methods. University of Arizona, https://statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhibit/19-century-navajo-weaving-asm/navajo-weaving-methods.

Sarapes. University of Arizona, https://statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhibit/19-century-navajo-weaving-asm/sarapes.

Bard Graduate Center. Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest (online exhibition and project pages). 2023, https://exhibitions.bgc.bard.edu/shapedbytheloom/; https://www.bgc.bard.edu/exhibitions/exhibitions/117/shaped-by-the-loom; https://www.bgc.bard.edu/exhibitions/exhibitions/125/shaped-by-the-loom-weaving.

Heard Museum. Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles. 2019–21, https://heard.org/exhibition/color-riot-how-color-changed-navajo-textiles/.

Textiles (Collection Overview)..https://heard.org/collection/textiles/.

Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University. Vegetal Dyes: Inspired by Plants from the Navajo Nation and Southeast Ohio. 2020, https://www.ohio.edu/sites/default/files/sites/museum-complex/files/VegetalDyes.pdf.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. First-phase Chief’s Blanket. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/757165.

Results for Navajo blanket (collection index)..https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=navajo%20blanket.

Moab Museum. Teec Nos Pos: Navajo Textiles. 2023, https://moabmuseum.org/teec-nos-pos-navajo-textile/.

MoMA PS1. Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies. Exhibition page, 2024, https://www.momaps1.org/programs/358-melissa-cody.

MoMA. Press Release: Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies. 2024, https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Melissa-Cody_MoMA-PS1-Exhibition-Announcement_Apr2024.pdf.

Checklist: Melissa Cody: Webbed Skies..2024, https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Melissa-Cody_Final-Checklist_Gallery-Order_4.1.24.pdf.

National Park Foundation. Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site..https://www.nationalparks.org/explore/parks/hubbell-trading-post-national-historic-site.

National Park Service. Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. https://www.nps.gov/hutr/.

History & Culture: Hubbell Trading Post. https://www.nps.gov/hutr/learn/historyculture/index.htm.

Henry, Ravis. The Navajo Long Walk. 2025, https://go.nps.gov/gc-410.

National Museum of the American Indian. The Long Walk | The Navajo Treaties. https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/navajo/long-walk/long-walk.cshtml.

First-phase Chief Blanket (Object NMAI_95130). https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_95130.

Navajo Sheep Project. History of the Navajo Sheep Project Organization. https://www.navajosheepproject.org/nsp-history.

Navajo-Churro Sheep Association. America’s First Sheep. https://www.navajo-churrosheep.com/americas-first-sheep/.

Home page. https://www.navajo-churrosheep.com/.

New Mexico Historic Sites. Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site. https://nmhistoricsites.org/bosque-redondo; https://nmhistoricsites.org/bosque-redondo/history.

Soriano, The Associated Press. Man Who Faked Native American Heritage to Sell His Art in Seattle Sentenced to Probation. AP News, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/80165ecbdfe105ae3a6f4b5e6f5f2f0b.

Textile blog (field reportage). Weaving in Beauty. 2011 Heard Museum Indian Market, A Walk in the Sunshine (Part I). 2011, https://weavinginbeauty.com/weavers-and-their-stories/2011-heard-museum-indian-market-a-walk-in-the-sunshine-part-i.

Toadlena/Two Grey Hills Trading Post and Weaving Museum. Hastiin Klah and Two Grey Hills. https://toadlenatradingpost.com/Toadlena_Weaving_Museum/ and related pages.

University of New Mexico, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Object Monday: Wide Ruins Weaving. 2021, https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/maxwell-at-home/objects/object-monday-wide-ruins-weaving.