The period around 1880-1900 marks a transition in all aspects of Navajo life—social and material, political and personal. The railroad reached the southern border of the reservation in 1881, bringing jobs and more manufactured goods, as well as expanding access to markets. A growing number of trading posts stocked groceries and dry goods, exchanging them for Navajo sheep’s wool and pelts, pinon nuts, other produce, and craftwork including handwoven rugs. Mill-woven blankets and cotton cloth began replacing handwoven blankets and garments. An economy based upon local barter slowly began to sift toward cash exchange and wage labor.
In some cases Navajo people embraced change and sought to incorporate it into their lives. Store-bought goods, tools, and equipment were quickly integrated for Navajo use. Other changes, like those affecting family structure, sheep ownership, or widespread housing patterns, were met with resistance. Traditional Navajo values for family, livestock, and land persisted while people incorporated many relatively superficial, if highly visible, elements into their lifestyles.
The transitional period signals major changes in Navajo weaving. The very look and feel of textiles changed as blanket-weaving gave way to rug-making. Earlier garments and blankets, once created for domestic use and tribal trade, were replaced by handwoven floor rugs sold to an outside market. The use of commercial yarns, especially cotton string and other mill-spun yarns for warp and brilliantly colored mill-spun wool yarns for weft, increased dramatically. Some weavers also used thick handspun yarn for “pound blankets,” for which traders paid by the pound. Bordered rug patterns and pictorial imagery grew in popularity.
Above:
Transitional blanket
ca. 1880-1885
Tapestry weave, interlocked joins
0.79 x 1.13 m; Tassels 0.040 m
44.488 x 31.102 in.; Tassels 1.575 in
Catalog No. 8369
ASM purchase from Nelle A. Dermont, 1919
“I like this because the squares are all squares—there are no diamonds to mix it up. The weaver was consistent in her design choices.” —Barbara Ornelas (laughing)
“Diamonds are just little dots, like pixels, which are squares, so they’re all squares anyway.” —Michael Ornelas
“Yeah, mom. You take a diamond and turn it and—you know what you’ve got?—you’ve got a square!” —Sierra Ornelas (smiling)
“This blanket was woven at the end of the “wearing blanket era,” just as the railroad came into the Southwest in 1881. The heavier handspun yarns and synthetic dyes are typical of pieces made during the transition from blanket weaving to rug weaving.” —Ann Hedlund
| Function | Fiber | Type | Ply-Spin-Twist | Color | Dye | Count * | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warp | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Grey | None | 10 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Red | Synthetic | 40 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Yellow | Native | 40 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | White | None | 40 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Green | Indigo+Native | 40 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Orange | Synthetic | 40 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Blue | Indigo | 61 |
| Ecord | Wool | Handspun | 3 | z | S | Red | Synthetic | 2 |
| Other | Wool | Commercial | (2 | z | S)Z | Red | Synthetic, Tested 2004 | -- |
| * threads/inch | ||||||||
Transitional Blanket
ca. 1880-90
Tapestry weave, interlocked and diagonal joins
1.37 x 1.835 m
72.244 x 53.937 in
Catalog No. 8396
ASM purchase from Nelle A. Dermont, 1919
“At the early trading posts, heavy blankets like this were bought by the pound. By the early 20th century, traders abandoned this practice because it discouraged weavers from doing their best work.” —Ann Hedlund
“This pattern resembles that produced by wedge weave (see nearby example), but the wefts go straight across instead of moving diagonally across the fabric. The zigzags lines are finely stair-stepped instead of smooth diagonals. Even the sides are scalloped like a wedge weave.” — Ann Hedlund
| Function | Fiber | Type | Ply-Spin-Twist | Color | Dye | Count * | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warp | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Dk Brown | None | 6 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Purple-Red | Synthetic | 20 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | White | None | 20 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Dk Brown | None | 20 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Orange-Red | Synthetic | 20 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Maroon Red, Streaky | A Synthetic, Tested 2004 | -- |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Pink (Solid) | B Synthetic, Tested 2004 | -- |
| Ecord | Wool | Handspun | 2 | z | S | Orange-Red | Synthetic | 2 |
| * threads/inch | ||||||||
Transitional pictorial blanket
ca. 1885-1895
Tapestry weave, interlocked and diagonal joins
1.52 x 2.09 m
82.283 x 59.843 in.
Catalog No. 12421
Gift of Mr. Alexander, Douglas, AZ, 1927
“I think this is off-the-wall. Like, when some guys clean up a room, they don’t really clean up the room, you know? I don’t see a woman weaving this, looking at horses and cows this way.” —Barbara Ornelas
“This makes me think of Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart and my grandfather. The cowboys! And Michael is experimental in his weaving like this, too.” —Sierra Ornelas
“The side elements seem like little corrals or fences; or they might be two-sided weaving combs. If these black and white ones are houses or hogans, then the horses are upside down.” —Michael Ornelas
| Function | Fiber | Type | Ply-Spin-Twist | Color | Dye | Count * | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warp | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | White | None | 7 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Red-Pink | Synthetic, Tested 2004 | 23 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Orange | Synthetic | 23 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Black | Synthetic | 23 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | White | None | 23 |
| Ecord | Wool | Handspun | 3 | z | S | Orange | Synthetic | 2 |
| * threads/inch | ||||||||
Transitional blanket
ca. 1875-1885
Tapestry weave, interlocked joins
1.435 x 2.04 m; Tassels 0.070 m
80.315 x 56.496 in.; Tassels 2.756 in
Catalog No. E-3272
Gift of Elizabeth Crozer Campbell, 1956; collected by donor’s father
“To me, this pattern is like a 1920s Christmas window in Macy’s or some urban storefront—all these ornaments hanging down. That’s not what the weaver intended, of course, but Michael and I use metaphors from pop culture to communicate how we feel and how we think they felt, to relate to weavers as human beings instead of silent faces in photographs.” —Sierra Ornelas
“This design reminds me of old 1980s video games like Pac Man—simple and blocky, and the colors weren’t too dynamic. The dark and light strips are like the maze walls and the characters inside are your enemies. You have to go into these areas and defeat your enemy.” —Michael Ornelas
“What was the weaver thinking when she unraveled red flannel cloth to weave this blanket around 1880? Unfortunately no records tell us. Perhaps she was intent on creating her own personal version of ‘beauty all around.’” —Ann Hedlund
| Function | Fiber | Type | Ply-Spin-Twist | Color | Dye | Count * | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warp | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | White | None | 9 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | White | None | 51 |
| Weft | Wool | Raveled | -- | Z | -- | Orange-Red | Synthetic | 51 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Yellow | Synthetic | 51 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Dk Blue | Indigo | 51 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Green | Synthetic | 51 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | -- | Z | -- | Lt Blue | Indigo | 51 |
| Ecord | Wool | Handspun | 3 | z | S | Dk Blue | Indigo | 2 |
| * threads/inch | ||||||||
Transitional blanket/rug
ca. 1897-1912
Tapestry weave, interlocked and diagonal joins
1.565 x 2.315 m; Tassels 0.060 m, 0.450 m
91.142 x 61.614 in
Catalog No. 8404
ASM purchase from Nelle A. Dermont, 1919
“This rug design is identical to a color plate in Crystal Trading Post’s 1903 mail order catalogue. Trader J.B. Moore considered it to be ‘the most general and popular of all among the weavers.’ Rugs like this sold then for $20.” —Ann Hedlund
“Navajos don’t really like to do the same patterns over and over and over. We like to choose our own designs.” —Barbara Ornelas
“You know how Navajos always get accused of copying other styles? Well, when they take something, they always make it their own!” —Lynda Pete, sister of Barbara Ornelas
| Function | Fiber | Type | Ply-Spin-Twist | Color | Dye | Count * | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warp | Wool | Commercial | 3 | z | S | Gray-White | None | 8 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | 3 | s | S | Red | Synthetic | 30 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | 3 | s | S | Black | Synthetic | 30 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | 3 | s | S | White | None | 30 |
| Weft | Wool | Handspun | 3 | s | S | Blue | Synthetic | 30 |
| Ecord | Wool | Handspun | 3(3 | s | S)Z | Red | Synthetic | 2 |
| * threads/inch | ||||||||