Navajo Blankets

1903

How They Won Their National Reputation

Though Navajo blankets as rugs, portieres, couch coverings and a dozen other things, have held their own in American homes for a season and more, there are many interesting details of their manufacture which are not known to the casual customer.

The impress of the Spanish cross, recalling the invasions of the Coronado expedition of 1540 is still paramount in this industry of the tribe. This marked the Navajo's first knowledge of the white race, and the later influence of Mexican art can be traced in the zigzagging diamond.

There is always one blanket weaver in a Navajo family, generally a woman, though sometimes a man, and the blanket frame which is erected outside the "hogan," or hut, is part of its architecture. This frame is of upright posts or rude poles. Kneeling or squatting in front of it is the patient weaver from morning till night.

The blankets are considered a medium of barter, as current as any coin among the neighboring tribes, for the Navajo's country is the finest for flock raising, and their wool far famed. The dyes used, too, are practically indelible, and their manufacture is a tribe secret.

The blanket is the banner garment of the squaws with 'dressy" aspirations, and the choicest of wigwam decorations. The care taken in the making of these blankets may be realized when one knows that two or three months are given to the manufacture of some of the more elaborate. No two of these are ever exactly alike, and for certain tribal ceremonies especial patterns are introduced. The choicest designs are reserved for enshrouding the dead, as the journey to the "Happy Hunting Ground" is considered much enhanced by the richness of the traveler's wrapping.

It is the Navajo blanket, too, that oftenest forms the charmed square of the snake dancing Mokis, and the sun dancers of the Shoshones and Arapahoes carpet their sacred enclosures with these same weaves that American bachelors and den devotees pay such round prices for. No wonder, with its history, its wealth of association, with its richness of color and originality of design, the Navajo blanket has attained a National reputation.

Navajo Indians Take 'Bath' Without Water

1914

Through Necessity, They Have Adopted Unique Plan for Bodily Cleanliness

It has already been indicated that the great desideratum of the Navajo country is water. A perennial water famine is not conducive to habits of bodily cleanliness; and a real bath in real water is something that the average Navajo knows nothing of. Nevertheless, these Bedouins of the Southwest realize that a thorough cleansing of the body is necessary, and have invented a method of accomplishing that end that is well adapted to the land of thirst in which they dwell. This is the sweat bath.

A miniature hogan is built of sticks of wood, and banked up with earth until it is air-tight, with the exception of an opening large enough to admit the body. A fire is built outside, in which large stones are heated red hot. Then these are placed in the sweat house, in a position in which the "bather" will be unlikely to come in contact with them. Then the candidate for a bath crawls in, keeping his head in the open air. One or more heavy blankets are placed over the opening and tightly around the neck of the occupant of the sweat house, to prevent the escape of the heated air.

The Indians remain in the sweat house for several hours, perspiring with incredible freedom. When they emerge they dry themselves by rubbing with the hot sand of the desert. As a cleansing agent, the sweat bath would be hard to beat, although it is a rather heroic substitute for the tub bath of civilization. Nevertheless, it opens the pores of the skin, promotes circulation, and has much to recommend it in preference to the practice of the members of some other tribes, of never taking a bath at all. — Christian Herald.