Their Processes Of Weaving Were
Exactly The Same Then As They Are Today, There Being But Slight Difference
Between The
Methods followed before the advent of the whites and afterward.
Hence, in a study of the Indian blanket, as it
Is made today, we are
approximately nearly to the pure aboriginal method of pre-Columbian times.
Archeologists and ethnologists generally assume that the art of weaving on
the loom was learned by the Navahos from their Pueblo neighbors. All the
facts in the case seem to bear out this supposition. Yet, as is well known,
the Navahos are a part of the great Athabascan family, which has scattered,
by separate migrations, from Alaska into California, Arizona and New
Mexico. Many of the Alaskans are good weavers, and according to Navaho
traditions, their ancestors, when they came into the country, wore blankets
that were made of cedar bark and yucca fibre. Even in the Alaska (Thlinket)
blankets, made today of the wool of the white mountain goat, cedar bark is
twisted in with the wool of the warp. Why, then, should not the Navaho
woman have brought the art of weaving, possibly in a very primitive stage,
from her original Alaskan home? That her art, however, has been improved by
her contact with the Pueblo and other Indians, there can be no question,
and, if she had a crude loom, it was speedily replaced by the one so long
used by the Pueblo. Where the Pueblo weaver gained her loom we do not know,
whether from the tribes of the South or by her own invention. But in all
practical ways the primitive loom was as complete and perfect at the time
of the Spanish conquest as it is today.
Any loom, to be complete, must possess certain qualifications. As Dr. Mason
has well said: "In any style of mechanical weaving, however simple or
complex, even in darning, the following operations are performed: First,
raising and lowering alternately different sets of warp filaments to form
the 'sheds'; second, throwing the shuttle, or performing some operation
that amounts to the same thing; third, after inserting the weft thread,
driving it home, and adjusting it by means of the batten, be it the needle,
the finger, the shuttle or a separate device."
Indian looms are made of four poles cut from trees that line the nearest
stream or grow in the mountain forests. Two of these poles are forked for
uprights, and the cross beams are lashed to them above and below. Sometimes
the lower beam is dispensed with and wooden pegs driven into the earth
instead. The warp is then arranged on beams lashed to the top and bottom of
the frame by means of a rawhide or horse-hair riata. Our Western word
lariat is merely a corruption of lariata. Thus the warp is made tight and
is ready for the nimble fingers of the weaver. Her shuttles are pieces of
smooth, round sticks upon the ends of which she winds yarn. Small balls of
yarn are frequently made to serve this purpose. By her side is a crude
wooden comb with which she strikes a few stitches into place. When she
wishes to wedge the yarn for a complete row - from side to side - she uses a
flat broad stick, one edge of which is sharpened almost to knife-like
keenness. This is called the "batten." With the design in her brain her
busy and skilful fingers produce the pattern as she desires it, there being
no sketch from which she may copy. In weaving a blanket of intricate
pattern and many colors the weaver finds it easier to open the few warp
threads needed with her fingers and then thrust between them the small
balls of yarn, rather than bother with a shuttle, no matter how simple.
Before blankets can be made the wool must be cut from the sheep, cleaned,
carded, spun and dyed. It is one of the interesting sights of the southwest
region to see a flock of sheep and goats running together, watched over,
perhaps, by a lad of ten or a dozen years, or by a woman who is ultimately
to weave the fleeces they carry into substantial blankets. After the fleece
has been sheared, the Navaho woman proceeds to wash it. Then it is combed
with hand cards, - small flat implements with wire teeth, purchased from the
traders. (These and the shears are the only modern implements used.) The
dyeing is often done before the spinning but generally after. The spindle
used is merely a slender stick thrust through a circular disc of wood. In
spite of the fact that the Navahos have seen the spinning wheels in use by
the Mexicans and Mormons, they have never cared either to make or adopt
them. Their conservatism preserves the ancient, slow and laborious
method. The Navahos live on a reservation which covers several hundred
square miles, extending along the northern borders of New Mexico and
Arizona where few travelers go. They do not live in villages or settlements
and their homes are so scattered that one may travel a whole day without
finding a woman at work with her loom. Day after day, however, one may see
the carding, spinning and weaving processes in the Hopi House at El Tovar,
where a little colony of Navahos is maintained.
Holding the spindle in the right hand, the point of the short end below the
balancing disc resting on the ground and the long end on her knee, the
spinner attaches the end of her staple close to the disc and then gives the
spindle a rapid twirl. As it revolves she holds the yarn out so that it
twists. As it tightens sufficiently she allows it to wrap on the spindle
and repeats the operation until the spindle is full. The spinning is done
loosely or tightly, according to the fineness of the weave required in the
blanket.
The quality and value of a Navaho blanket is governed largely by the
fineness of the weave.
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