Two Grey Hills Trading Post – Navajo Rugs

March 1, 2011

Share The Navajo name for the Two Grey Hills Trading Post was:  Bis Dah itso, “Yellow Clay at an Elevation,” (Van Valkenburgh 1941, 166; Young p.c. 1995), referring to two Mesa Verde sandstone crags nearby. This was erroneously translated by Pearce (1965, 173) as “Two Yellow Adobes.” This post is situated 11 miles east of [...]

Read the full article →

Video of Navajo Weaver Carding and Spinning

December 2, 2010

Share An excerpt from Wolf Creek Productions film, Clara Sherman Navajo Weaver. Navajo Weaver Clara Sherman teaches how to card and Spin wool in preparation for weaving a rug. ©Wolf Creek Productions. All Rights Reserved.

Read the full article →

Squash Blossom Necklace

December 1, 2010

Share The Squash Blossom  necklace is a traditional adornment for many Navajo women, and also some men. It gets its name from the silver beads that have petal-like additions. In the Navajo language they are called the “bead that turns out”. Nothing in the word denoted squash or pomegranate blossom. The crescent-shaped object that is [...]

Read the full article →

Navajo Turquoise Jewelry

November 30, 2010

Share Turquoise has been native to jewelry in the Southwest for over 2000 years. Then, as now, the stone was deeply appreciated and revered. No doubt, the prehistoric Indians and the ancestors of our current Native Americans ascribed a multitude of properties to this stone. The Navajos believe that turquoise was a sign of good [...]

Read the full article →

J. B. Moore Indian Trader

November 19, 2010

Share Moore was one of the great pioneers in the field of Navajo weaving and was instrumental in changing it from blanket to rug. He, along with other traders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, saw that the future of weaving lay with adapting to the changes in Anglo taste, adaptations that are [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →