The Grandmothers Are Smiling

by Dave Bobb, owner of the American Trails Gallery

Looking out over the high, arid, rolling eastern foothills of the Chuska Mountains located in Northern New Mexico 90 miles northwest of Gallup the land of the Dineh (Navaho) stretches as far as the eye can see. Nestled between two small rounded hills eroded by eons of strong winds and storms blowing out of the high desert is an isolated spring. It is due to the existence of this spring, and others like it, that the Dineh have been able to survive hundreds of years in this very remote, desolate and yet deeply inspiring landscape.

In 1909 the Toadlena Trading Post was built here in the valley between the "Two Grey Hills" and began to trade with the world famous Two Grey Hills Navajo weavers living within a 10-mile radius around the spring. Their weaving's distinctive rich earth-tone colors in tans, browns and many shades of gray are achieved entirely by blending the natural colors found in the wool of their flocks without any recourse to the dyes that other weavers rely upon.

The ancient, labor-intensive process of weaving a rug on a simple vertical loom hasn't changed significantly over hundreds of years. After the sheep are shorn the wool is washed, hand combed, carded and spun. The weaver selects her wool in anticipation of a design that will be a blending of traditional designs handed down from her mother and grandmother along with something new out of her own personal experiences.

The Two Grey Hills weaving tradition reached its zenith in the 1940s and 50s but withered over subsequent decades. In 1997 Mark Winter (a passionate Indian Trader) set about to revitalize the Two Grey Hills weaving tradition. He leased the Historic Toadlena Trading Post, refurbished it and added a new Weaving Museum. As a dealer in historic weavings for the past 30 years, Winter has always considered himself a student of the art. His natural curiosity and passion for the weavings inspired him to track down the people who wove them and ultimately led him to Toadlena.

Winter occasionally "struck gold" by being able to put into the hands of an old weaver one her very early rugs. He recounts that in one instance "I once asked a grandmother, 'Who wove this' and she said 'I did' and tears ran down her face." In his quest to build a genealogy of the major weaving families in the area he became known as "the man who asks too many questions." Another weaver calls him "old bones." Serena Jumbo explains, "In the old days, we'd be paid money or we'd trade our rugs for gas or jewelry. Pretty soon, the money was spent, the gas was used up and the jewelry was pawned, and we forgot about the rugs. And then that guy shows up, like an old dog digging up bones and bringing them back home." Considering that it can take several months in some cases to create a weaving it is understandable how some weavers find it difficult to part with their creations. This explains part of the reason for the "spirit line" placed into many weavings so that the weavers psyche won't become trapped inside the design after spending so much time involved with it.

Through Mark Winter's sponsorship at the Toadlena Trading Post over the last three years, the Two Grey Hills weaving tradition is currently experiencing a Renaissance and the old grandmothers are smiling. Weavers are being inspired to return to traditional methods and materials. As Winter described his conversations with eighty-five year old Clara Sherman, "Clara's a living treasure, and she has the best sheep on the reservation, but until I convinced her to weave with her own wool, she was making her rugs with ordinary commercial yarn. When I asked her why, she told me that no one knew the difference."

Picking up a tapestry woven by the late Daisy Taugelchee he said, "Look at this." He holds it up to the light. "It's a stained glass window. She wove a stained glass window! She defined the essence of Two Grey Hills weaving. She had an uncanny ability to spin the wool finer than anyone ever had." An average weaving is in the 40 wefts per inch territory. At 130 wefts per inch, the texture of her weaving is like a piece of cloth. "Taugelchee's weavings were so fine and she won so many first place awards at the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial that a new tapestry category had to be created so that other weavers would want to enter."

Other master weavers of these delicate tapestries include Julia Jumbo. "Julia's weaving displays a clarity of woolen design that is really unmatched," Winter says. He challenged Julia to weave a larger tapestry, telling her, "It's hard to hold up a tiny place mat and say 'This is the work of the best living weaver.'" In response she wove one last very large tapestry measuring 3 by 5 feet. It is her largest piece in over 35 years.

Mark is proud of all of his weavers. "We have clans with 35 weaving members," he beams, "and one family with 16 weaving members." There are 12 weavers in the community now in their 80's and many young granddaughters and great-granddaughters are now bringing their first pieces to the trading post to sell. A Polaroid is taken of each weaver and her rug when it is bought at the trading post and put in a book on the front counter. One day, Chuck Kinsey, the manager of Toadlena, noticed a group of teen-age boys poring over the book, and asked what they were doing. "We're looking for weaver chicks" one replied, and then explained that young weavers were prime girlfriend material because they were earning money. The expression "weaver chicks" appealed to the grandmothers and they now refer to themselves by this name. Winter's interest and constant encouragement of the weaving community has resulted in over 75 first rugs being woven by some as young as four. When a neighboring trading post proprietor asked self-proclaimed weaver chick Virginia Deal why she took her rugs to Toadlena and not to his post she replied that "he'd had his chance to treat me good. This man (Winter) has made it special again."

Saturday July 7th 2001 there will be a lecture by ethnologist Mark Winter on the weaving traditions of the Toadlena-Two Grey Hills at the Schneider Museum of Art on the SOU campus. This will be a fund-raiser for the Schneider Museum and Mark will be accompanied by Rose Blueeyes, one of the weavers he sponsors at the Toadlena Trading Post and Two Grey Hills Museum. The lecture will cover the development of Navajo weaving beginning with the introduction of sheep by the Spanish during the historical period to the present day.

Two Grey Hills weavings are also on display year-round at the American Trails Gallery located at 27 North Main Street (on the Plaza). During the First Friday Art Walk in July (5-8 pm, 6 July 2001) Mark Winter will be appearing at the American Trails Gallery where he will be speaking and answering your questions about these weavings.

Quotes gathered from interviews conducted by Bill Donovan and Alice Kaufman. Photos by Tony Vinella of Santa Fe courtesy of Toadlena Trading Post.