NAYAJO 
 
 AND HIS 
 
 BLANKE 
 
 U. S. HOLLISTLR ? 
 
 DENVER, COL 
 
 COPYRIGHT 190}, BY U. S. HOLLISTEK. 
 
THE PRINTING AND THREE-COLOR WORK BY 
 THE UNITED STATES COLORTYPK CO. 
 
 AND 
 
 HALF-TONE WORK BY 
 
 THE WILLIAMSON-HAFFNER ENGRAVING CO. 
 DENVER, COLORADO 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 99 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 "THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN" (Sprague). - 3 
 
 THE RED MAN . 1 7 
 
 A SUMMER DAY IN NAVAJO LAND 21 
 
 THE NAVAJO LAND 
 
 THE NAVAJO . 
 
 HABITATIONS . 
 
 THE BEGINNING 
 
 ANOTHER STEP 
 
 THE BLANKET . 
 
 CONCLUSION . 
 
 514 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 COLORED PLATES FAC ,NG PAGE 
 
 PLATE I One-half of a Navajo Squaw-dress" of the period between 
 
 1840 and 1860 29 
 
 PLATE II An old example of Navajo work in pink bayeta, native dyes, 
 
 made about 1850 ^ 
 
 PLATE III An old blanket of native wool in natural colors and native 
 
 dyes - 67 
 
 PLATE IV A curious and rare old blanket of sacred significance, woven 
 
 about 1845 87 
 
 PLATE V A modern rug-blanket, made in 1891 93 
 
 PLATE VI An old specimen bearing the Head Chiefs emblem, of the 
 
 period of 1865 103 
 
 PLATE VII A valuable old bayeta blanket made about 1840 - 113 
 
 PLATE VIII A combination of bayeta and Germantovvn yarn - 117 
 
 PLATE IX A Navajo beauty, wholly of German town yarn, about twenty- 
 five years old 123 
 
 PLATE X Another fine example of Navajo weaving, entirely of German- 
 town yarn - 137 
 
 ENGRAVINGS PAGE 
 
 "Homeward Bound" Frontispiece 
 
 Portrait of the Author 9 
 
 Group of Navajos Visiting Santa Fe 1 6 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Continued 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FIGURE I * * "in most characteristics entirely different from the 
 
 aborigines of any other country" 17 
 
 FIGURE 2 * * "where two mountains look at each other across a 
 
 canon" 2 1 
 
 FIGURE 3 -A Navajo Summer Hogan 24 
 
 FIGURE 4 "a mountain, mesa and valley country" 27 
 
 FIGURE 5 A Cliff Dweller s Sandal; upper and lower sides 31 
 
 FIGURE 6 A Navajo "Sweat House" 38 
 
 FIGURE 7 "he struts and poses in great style until he scents 
 
 his mother-in-law" 41 
 
 FIGURE 8 Navajos Worshiping the Elements 46 
 
 FIGURE 9 Navajo Indians Trading 5 i 
 
 FIGURE 10 A Navajo Silversmith 58 
 
 FIGURE 11 "may be almost anything that can be considered a 
 
 .shelter" 65 
 
 FIGURE 12 A Navajo Winter Hogan 68 
 
 FIGURE i 3 A More Elaborate Winter Hogan 74 
 
 FIGURE 14 "familiar landmarks today, but which were far more 
 
 populous then than now" 
 
 FIGURE 15 "At San Ildelfonso * * he built the first church in New 
 
 Mexico" 83 
 
 FIGURE 16 * "there was then, as now, a Navajo flock in every 
 
 valley" 91 
 
 FIGURE 17 A Navajo Woman Carding Wool 100 
 
 FIGURE 1 8 A Navajo Woman Spinning Wool i i o 
 
 FIGURE 19 A Navajo Weaver 120 
 
 FIGURE 20 "the young Navajo woman in her bridal array" 129 
 
 FIGURE 21 A View in Zuni 34 
 
 FIGURE 22 Navajos Gazing Upon A Railroad Train 142 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 \YiTii the passing 1 of the North 
 American Indians from their 
 nntive condition there is an in 
 creasing interest in all that relates 
 to them, to their origin, and to 
 their modes of life before they 
 were disturbed by the influences 
 of advancing civilization. In the 
 sequence of events it will not be 
 long until they will live only in 
 history; and therefore, realizing 
 that this fate awaits them in the 
 near future, we are collecting and 
 recording all information we can 
 obtain concerning their legends, 
 traditions, beliefs, habits, man 
 ners, customs, and handiwork, and 
 
 are eager to witness their tribal ceremonies and religious rites be 
 fore the encroachments of the white man bring about their discon 
 tinuance. Every fact pertaining to their lives that we gather and 
 record, and every article of their production that we obtain and 
 preserve, will be of value to coming generations, and add to the 
 stock of material available to future historians of this remarkable 
 race of men. 
 
 Our researches along these lines bring us into contact with 
 the structures and other remains of those strange and unknown 
 peoples, the Cliff Dwellers and the Mound Builders, who were cer 
 tainly far antecedent to our Indians in their occupation of our 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 country. We study with intense interest their surviving monu 
 ments and other evidences of their presence here in the remote past 
 in our still baffled efforts to determine who and what they were and 
 how and when they lived ; and treasure their lesser relics their im 
 plements, pottery, and woven fabrics as mementos of vanished 
 races who, as we have many reasons for believing, may have risen 
 and flourished long before the Christian era. 
 
 In decorating our homes with fine examples of our Indians 
 barbaric work which we willingly purchase at almost any price, 
 we gratify our love for curious things and yield to our fancy for 
 unusual embellishments; but in doing so we may also be building 
 better than we know. Collections of the implements of domestic 
 use, and of warfare, and of the clothing and ornaments, made by 
 the Indians of our eastern coast in the time when our Pilgrim 
 Fathers landed, would be of great value now ; and collections as 
 sembled by us of similar articles made by the Indians of the present 
 day will be hereafter of great ethnological and historic value. 
 
 As Indian wars have gone out of fashion, present-time products 
 of Indian handiwork, among which general attention is divided, are 
 basketry, beadwork, buckskin garments, necklaces, pottery, and the 
 Navajo blanket. The more conspicuous of these, and toward which 
 the greatest interest is directed, are the basket and the blanket. 
 Basket-making covers a wide range of territory, the art being prac 
 ticed by many tribes, who produce an almost endless variety of forms 
 and patterns. From Alaska southward along our western coast 
 and in the Rocky Mountain region, wherever there is an Indian tribe 
 or clan, we may find the native-made basket in some form either 
 for utilitarian, ceremonial, or ornamental purposes. 
 
 Among primitive people everywhere in the world the basket 
 was the parent of textile fabrics); the art of weaving baskets having 
 preceded that of weaving cloth, and having suggested the latter, 
 among all races. How little we appreciate these early efforts of 
 aboriginal men who gathered bark and twigs, or fibrous leaves of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 plants, and formed them into rude receptacles for domestic use, and 
 later developed the rudimentary art into one producing rough cover 
 ings for their bodies ! In the fact that the oldest-known pieces of 
 pottery bear marks of having been formed inside a basket, we have 
 evidence that basketry preceded pottery ; the basket-covering having 
 been burned away, thus removing the mold and baking the pottery 
 at the same time. It is difficult to realize that all the luxurious, 
 beautiful, and useful fabrics produced by our modern looms had 
 their origin in the exceedingly crude basket-weaving done by people 
 living in a state of barbarism, if not of savagery. Collecting and 
 studying Indian baskets possess much fascination for all who do so, 
 and will long be in high favor among lovers of barbaric art. 
 
 But the Navajo blankets are peculiarly attractive to those who 
 become familiar with their remarkable qualities and very interesting 
 history. Indeed they are unique among Indian products, and may 
 be said to stand aloof from all the others. Made by only one tribe, 
 they have characteristics that no other people try to imitate ; and at 
 this time are attracting probably more attention than any other 
 articles of Indian manufacture. 
 
 My interest in these really wonderful products of the simple 
 looms of the Navajos dates from the first year of my residence in 
 the Rocky Mountain country, and has remained unabated through 
 the twenty years or more that have elapsed since. During this period 
 I have had many opportunities to learn something about the abor 
 iginal people of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, having 
 frequently visited the wigwams and wickyups of the Utes and of 
 the Apaches, the adobe villages of the Pueblos, and the hogans of 
 the Navajos. Though my boyhood years were spent on the pioneer 
 line, and among my earlier recollections are those of Chippewa 
 Indians calling in bands at my father s house in southern Wiscon 
 sin when that part of the country was practically a wilderness, 1 
 have never been in sympathy with those who think "the only good 
 Indians are dead ones." There are many good Indians, and also 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 many bad ones. But it might be worth while to remember that 
 not all white men are good. 
 
 For some material used in the preparation of this little volume 
 I am indebted to Pike s "Account" of his famous expedition, Major 
 Emory s "Notes of a Military Reconnoissance," Governor Prince s 
 "Story of New Mexico," and to the Reports of the Smithsonian 
 Institution s Bureau of Ethnology; but its contents represent to a 
 greater extent the results of my own observations and researches 
 supplemented by information received from many good friends in 
 the Navajo land. 
 
 The colored plates are direct reproductions from blankets in 
 my collection, while the title page is by that conscientious painter 
 of Indian life, Frank P. Sauerwen, three of whose pictures appear 
 among the engravings. The other engravings are from photographs 
 by P. E. Harroun, Sumner W. Matteson, Charles H. Goodman, 
 Professor George H. Pepper of the Hyde expedition under the 
 auspices of the American Museum of Natural History (New York), 
 and by myself. 
 
 During the years in which I have been interested in the work 
 of the Navajos and in collecting choice examples of their weaving, 
 many questions concerning these people and their woven fabrics 
 have been asked me; and it was in consequence of these frequent 
 inquiries that I was prompted to prepare this little book. While it 
 is far from a complete presentation of the subjects with which it 
 deals, it may prove of value and interest to those who admire and 
 buy Navajo blankets; and to them it is respectfully dedicated. 
 
 U. S. HOLLISTER. 
 Denver, Colo., May, 1903. 
 
THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN 
 
 (SPRAGUE.) 
 
 "Not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled with 
 all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded 
 in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived 
 and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls 
 over your head, the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer ; gazing 
 on the same moon that smiles for you, the Indian lover wooed his 
 dusky mate. 
 
 "Here, the wigwam-blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, 
 and the council-fire glared on the wise and daring. Now, they 
 dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes, and now, they paddled 
 the light canoe along your rocky shores. Here they warred ; the 
 echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying death-song, all 
 were here; and when the tiger-strife was over, here curled the smoke 
 of peace. 
 
 "Here, too, they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom 
 went up a fervent prayer to the Great Spirit. He had not written 
 his laws for them on tables of stone, but he had traced them on 
 the tables of their hearts. The poor child of Nature knew not the 
 God of Revelation, but the God of the universe he acknowledged 
 in everything around. 
 
 "He beheld him in the star that sank in beauty behind his 
 lonely dwelling; in the sacred orb that flamed on him from his 
 mid-day throne ; in the flower that snapped in the morning s breeze ; 
 in the lofty pine that defied a thousand whirlwinds; in the timid 
 warbler that never left its native grove; in the fearless eagle, whose 
 untired pinion was wet in the clouds; in the worm that crawled 
 at his feet; and in his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of 
 
14 THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN. 
 
 that light, to whose mysterious source he bent in humble, though 
 blind adoration. 
 
 "And all this has passed away. Across the ocean came a pilgrim 
 bark, bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown 
 for you; the latter sprung up in the path of the simple native. Two 
 hundred years have changed the character of a great continent, and 
 blotted forever from its face, a whole, peculiar people. Art has 
 usurped the bowers of nature, and the anointed children of educa 
 tion have been too powerful for the tribes of the ignorant. 
 
 "Here and there, a stricken few remain, but how unlike their 
 bold, untamed progenitors. The Indian of falcon glance and lion 
 bearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the pathetic 
 tale, is gone ! and his degraded offspring crawls upon the soil, where 
 he walked in majesty, to remind us how miserable is man, when 
 the foot of the conqueror is on his neck. 
 
 "As a race, they have withered from the land. Their arrows 
 are broken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. 
 The council-fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their 
 war-cry is fast fading to the untrodden west. Slowly and sadly 
 they climb the distant mountains, and read their doom in the 
 setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide which is 
 pressing them away ; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave, 
 which will settle over them forever. 
 
 "Ages hence, the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some 
 growing city, will ponder on the structure of their disturbed re 
 mains, and wonder to what manner of persons they belonged. They 
 will live only in the songs and chronicles of their exterminators. 
 Let these be faithful to their rude virtues, as men, and pay due 
 tribute to their unhappy fate, as a people." 
 
> i 
 
THE RKD MAN 
 
 THE North American Indian has a 
 strong personality; an individuality 
 peculiar to himself. He is in most 
 characteristics entirely different from 
 the aborigines of any other country. 
 Our Indian tribes may differ in de 
 tails of habits, but they are remark 
 ably alike in general. The men 
 greatly dislike manual labor, or any 
 thing else that savors of drudgery. 
 They are combative, the warrior in 
 stinct being strong in all of them. 
 To become a war-chief was the high 
 est ambition of the young man : to be 
 recognized as a great warrior, the 
 highest ambition of the war-chief. 
 Their war-songs took precedence 
 over all the weird and uncanny vocal demonstrations that we call 
 Indian song. To put on war-paint, and dress in the paraphernalia 
 of war, was the highest gratification of their sense of barbaric pride. 
 Their legends of battle, and of the victories won by their prowess, 
 are among the more important of their stories ; and they now tell 
 us with great gusto of the brave deeds done by their people "long 
 time ago." 
 
 Fond of the chase, our Indians are hunters of wild game almost 
 by instinct. The "cunning of the fox" is met by the craft of the 
 hunter, and to the weak trait in the habits of animal or bird appeal 
 is made to the best advantage in effecting its capture. When PCS- 
 
 FIGURE I ;: "in most characteristics 
 entirely different from the aborigines of 
 any other country" 
 
18 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 sible, they seek timbered and well-watered regions as places of 
 abode, and are cunning in woodcraft. The "four winds," or the 
 four quarters of the compass, they know from the incline of the 
 oak, or by the moss upon the rocks. They are not noted for ideal 
 domestic virtues, and regard their women as of value only in pro 
 portion to the amount of manual labor they perform to the extent 
 that they lighten the burdens of their lords. 
 
 Indians are faithful friends, but implacable enemies ; and are 
 imitative of the white man chiefly in adopting his vices. While 
 not disposed, as a general rule, to be truthful, they can be depended 
 upon to lie to a white man who has lied to them. On the other 
 hand, a white man who has dealt only in truth and fairness in his 
 intercourse with them, may depend upon their integrity in all things. 
 Therefore the white man s influence over them, is in proportion 
 to the reputation he has established with them for regarding truth 
 and honesty. It may be stated as a rule that if they are untruthful 
 or dishonest themselves, they never fail to respect truth and honesty 
 in others. They are in no sense emotional, and anything like senti 
 ment is entirely foreign to their nature. Stoical to an exasperating 
 degree, they will often persist in wearing a stolid, unchanged 
 expression during one s efforts to amuse or abuse them. This is 
 further illustrated by their temperate manifestations of either joy 
 or sorrow, and the heroic fortitude with which they endure torture 
 or other physical suffering. 
 
 All of them have some form of religion ; its expression being 
 the worship of natural phenomena. They worship the elements; 
 the wind and the whirlwind; the gentle rain and the mountain 
 storm; the storm clouds, the lightning and the thunder; the stars, 
 the sun, and the moon. Birds and animals are also objects of 
 adoration, but more often are regarded as means of communication 
 with the elements, rather than as creatures to be directly worshiped. 
 They bow in suppliant mood before idols of crude figures of stone 
 or clay, or rude wood carvings. Their altars are often decorated 
 
THE RED MAN. 19 
 
 with the feathers of birds, and with plumes of grass surmounting 
 "sand paintings;" and surrounded by baskets of sacred meal and 
 corn. Each uncouth figure represents the element with which they 
 desire to communicate. They invoke these dumb gods, but beyond 
 the mere figure, they see and invoke the element it represents. 
 
 For instance, the Pueblo Indian s God of Rain may be an ugly 
 mass of sunburned clay, representing a human figure holding an 
 olla, or water jar. While they pay tribute to it and ask that rain 
 may fall upon their sun-scorched lands, they really look beyond the 
 image, and fix their attention on the clouds from which they hope 
 rain will come; and beyond the clouds to the governing Power 
 of the universe. 
 
 The popular idea of the Indian s worship of idols is not entirely 
 correct. He does not worship the idol, but that element in Nature 
 represented by the idol. We venerate the cross, not because it has 
 any power for good or evil, but because it is the emblem of the 
 crucifixion. From a view-point of broad charity, we cannot deny 
 the Indian s idol a place among the emblems of a world of wor 
 shipers. Who is competent to say that the Indian s worship of 
 the grandeur of the firmament in which he sees and recognizes the 
 power of an Omnipotent, is not as proper for him, as our worship 
 is for us in any of the many ways enlightened people do so? The 
 Indian has many idols : we have many forms. Read Prescott s 
 "Conquest of Mexico, "and then say by what human right the Span 
 ish murderers of the peaceful Aztecs tore down their idols, and in 
 their stead erected the cross literally stained with the blood of men 
 who died defending their homes, and with the blood of helpless 
 women and innocent children. If the broad mantle of charity be 
 needed to cover the errors of the Spanish invader or those of his 
 victims, let it be cast over the former. 
 
 While the Indian is not an ideal being, he is not lacking in 
 many good qualities. Stolid, because he does not readily compre 
 hend our ways, he really possesses a strong mentality, and under- 
 
THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 stands natural phenomena better than we. He is not given to much 
 talk, but that is not because of mental weakness. His memory is 
 excellent, but he may often seem to forget, when it is not in his 
 interest to remember. If he really does not understand, he is apt 
 to attribute it to the supernatural. To him, everything in Nature 
 partakes of the sacred; every element has a soul. The medicine 
 man is his preacher, and his seer, or prophet; and is expected not 
 only to cure disease, but to guard against it and against all other 
 forms of evil; to ask favors of the supernatural, and to advise and 
 direct in the forms of worship. Witchery is recognized, and con 
 sidered a black art, and condemned to the extent of killing the 
 witches, or of banishing them from the tribe. Some enlightened 
 people possibly have set the example. We do not know whether 
 the Indian believed in witchcraft before the landing of our good 
 Pilgrim Fathers, or not. Let us not draw too close comparisons 
 for fear of the result. 
 
 In conclusion, let us admit that the Indian is not a particularly 
 lovable being. Possibly he will be when he learns to "love his 
 neighbor as himself." For many generations he has considered the 
 white man as his enemy. Why ? Because he has hunted him from 
 his native land ; cheated and robbed him, and while a good white 
 man was trying to convert him, a bad one was plying him with 
 vile whisky. Sacred promises have been broken. He has been 
 confined to barren reservations, forbidden to kill game, and hedged 
 about by the white man s power; baffled by the white man s cun 
 ning a cunning far deeper than his own. He has no way to turn 
 but toward the setting sun ; no voice to listen to but the voice of 
 Fate, and that consigns him to the vale of extermination and says, 
 "Good-bye!" 
 
 "Alas for them! their day is o er. 
 
 Their fires are out from shore to shore." 
 
A SUMMER DAY IN NAVAJO LAND 
 
 "An angel, robed in spotless white, 
 Bent down and kissed the sleeping night. 
 Night woke to blush : The sprite was gone. 
 Men saw the blush and called it Dawn." 
 
 SLOWLY the darkness of early morn 
 falls back before the shafts of a rising 
 sun. The keen arrows of light pierce 
 its mantle, and it is driven fleeting to 
 the west. The Sun is master : his morn 
 ing rays dry the earth. The vapor rises 
 from the streams in the valley, at first 
 in little threads of white, like smoke 
 from a dying camp fire ; then gathering 
 volume, it ascends until the course of 
 the stream is plainly marked by a pearly 
 
 FIGURE 2 * "where two mountains white drapery that curtains the bright- 
 look at each other across a canon" r .. t , T *i 
 
 ness of the new-born day. Lazily ex 
 panding, and growing darker, the mist assumes the form of threat 
 ening clouds, and these float up the canons and brush against the 
 mountain sides, spraying the verdure with diamonds of dew, and 
 baptizing it in the name of the glorious Orb of Day, the Indians 
 "Father of All." Then they whiten again as they are bleached by 
 the sun ; and, stirred by the breeze, go tumbling over the mountains 
 like great fleecy sheep at play. Beautiful in contrast with the 
 purple haze of the ranges, the azure of the sky, and the light of 
 the morning, yet they soon separate into slender strands of mist 
 which wander off into space and are lost. 
 
22 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 And now, everything is bathed in golden sunshine. The snow 
 glistens on the peaks; the odor of pine and of cedar fills the air; 
 the pure ozone tempts the lungs to full expansion. The world of 
 wilderness is awake! 
 
 And this is Morning in Navajo land. 
 
 As the noontime approaches, the sun seems to pause overhead, 
 where, in a dome of purest blue, it glows and burns, and parches 
 the earth; but, under its influence, the valleys have revealed their 
 wealth of wild flowers, cactus, sage and bright-leafed shrubs, that 
 rival the barbaric colors of oriental drapery. The mountains with 
 their gleaming caps of snow stand out in strong relief, in blue and 
 gray and purple tints, and in ever-shifting lights and shadows. An 
 eagle slowly and in great circles soars high in the blue sky. A 
 coyote calls to his mate across the miles between mesa and mesa; 
 or, in the shade of a cedar naps or idles the day away a lazy vaga- 
 l)ond, waiting for the night. On a distant trail, a Navajo on horse 
 back, watching his sheep, shades his eyes and looks across the valley 
 into the vast expanse of light; and in the distance he can see the 
 smoke from the hut he calls home. He looks at the grandeur of 
 the whole scene through the rarefied air of an elevation of more 
 than a mile above the sea; through an atmosphere which, acting 
 like the lens of a telescope, brings far-distant objects within easy 
 range. The great panorama of mountain and plain, of mesa and 
 valley, of arroya and canon, shaded here and there by pine and 
 cedar, dwarfs every living thing. The stillness is the stillness of 
 solitude ; the beauty, the beauty of Nature undefiled. 
 
 And this is Mid-day in Navajo land. 
 
 As the afternoon grows old, the glare fades; and the sun, 
 touching the rugged horizon, casts long shadows across the plains ; 
 and then, like a blazing meteor, drops out of sight behind the snow 
 capped mountains. 
 
 Now, turn your eyes to the west and look upon the glorious 
 beauty of a sunset in this strange land. The peaks stand out like 
 
A SUMMER DAY IN NAVAJO LAND. 25 
 
 sentinels guarding the retreat of day, and a blaze of light whitens 
 the sunward side of those to the right and to the left. Fragments 
 of gathering clouds, floating above in a sea of azure in which are 
 blended tints of gray and green and yellow, are rich with the colors 
 of red and gold and scarlet and purple which shift and change 
 before our gaze as the misty masses drift with the evening breeze. 
 Through this wealth of brilliant colors and mingled hues and tints 
 the sun projects its rays in fan-like form far into space, the shafts 
 and beams of light illuminating the whole, and completing a rare 
 picture of magnificence that inspires feelings of reverence and 
 humility in those who look upon it. You close your eyes, and 
 wonder if anything else that is of this world can be so beautiful. 
 The fiery glory behind the mountains dies down, but twilight lingers 
 long as it slowly yields its beauty to the gathering shades of night. 
 
 And this is Evening in Navajo land. 
 
 One after another the stars appear; slowly and shyly at first, 
 one here and one there; "then springing into myriads all at once." 
 The rising moon is hidden by the mountains, and her soft white 
 light, reflected on the clouds that float around and above the peaks, 
 transforms them into masses of white and gold. As we stand in 
 the deep shadow, the mountains are outlined in frosted silver by 
 the light of the moon that we cannot see, and with this and the 
 hues of the illuminated clouds before us, the grandly beautiful scene 
 is like one we associate with the work of enchantment a most 
 wonderful combination of moonlight effects in the mountain regions 
 of the Navajo land. As she rises, the moon s rim comes into view 
 where two mountains look at each other across a canon (Figure 
 2) ; and, peering through this notch in the range, she seems to be 
 asking: "Is it night? May I come?" But without awaiting our 
 bidding she presents herself in all her splendor; and the mountains 
 and cliffs and valleys all the wide landscape around us, are flooded 
 with her light and do homage to Her Majesty, the Queen of Night, 
 the Indians "Mother of All Mankind." 
 
26 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 The soughing of the pines as they are stirred by a rising breeze, 
 is like the murmur of a distant sea, and warns us that the Storm 
 King has had his battle array of thunder-clouds hidden behind the 
 mountains. Now, as he leads them over the range, the wind rushes 
 down the gorges, whirls around the foot-hills, and sweeps across 
 the mesa and through the canons, raising great billows of dust. 
 The air is "tremulous with the energy of an approaching storm." 
 Suddenly, all is quiet; but soon the great rain-drops begin to fall 
 big warm tears of the clouds. Thicker and faster they come until 
 the land is drenched, and new-made rivers roar in the canons, and 
 flood the arroyas with their turbid waters. The clouds have swept 
 over us, and in the silvery light that fills the night, we watch the 
 retreating storm and hear the distant, sullen thunder, that rumbles 
 like the cannonading of a retiring army that has spent its strength. 
 Far-away dull flashes of lightning still tell of the storm that is 
 gone ; but the moon and the stars seem brighter than before, though 
 low in the east is a touch of the faint first glow that heralds the 
 coming of another morn. 
 
 And this was a summer day in Navajo land. 
 
THE NAVAJO LAND 
 
 FIGURE 4 * "a mountain, mesa and valley country 
 
 A LAND of desert and of 
 great brown plains; of 
 rugged mountains and of 
 sheltered valleys; of an 
 azure sky, and a soft, win 
 some air that tempts one 
 to rest and sleep; where 
 the cold of winter is tem 
 pered by the warmth of a 
 southern sun, and the sum 
 mer heat is fanned to a de 
 lightful coolness by the 
 
 ever-stirring breeze that comes down from snow-capped mountains, 
 over the mesas and into the valleys, freighted with the breath of 
 pines and cedars. 
 
 That portion of our sunny southwest occupied by the Navajo 
 Indians, and set apart by the government as the Navajo Reserva 
 tion, we shall call the Navajo land. Originally these people occu 
 pied a wide range of mountain and valley in southeastern Utah, 
 southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico and northeastern 
 Arizona. Prior to 1846, they were bold marauders and, until 
 tamed by American soldiers, were a menace to the pioneer line of 
 civilization. In 1867 the present reservation, located in northwest 
 ern New Mexico, and northeastern Arizona, with a small area in 
 southeastern Utah, was assigned them. While this reservation does 
 not nearly cover the original area occupied by the Navajos prior 
 to 1863, it is entirely within the lines of their first occupation. The 
 reservation contains 12,000 square miles, or 7,680,000 acres, equnl 
 
28 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 to the combined areas of Massachusetts and Connecticut, or of New 
 Jersey and Connecticut. 
 
 If this great tract of land were fertile, or outside the arid 
 region, it would not be an Indian reservation. As it is, the sun 
 shine, temperate climate, and grandeur of scenery, constitute nearly 
 all the measures of value the region now possesses. The Tunicha 
 range of mountains cuts the country in two from the northwest to 
 the southeast, and the Cariza spurs to the north add to its mountain 
 area ; the range and the spurs attaining an altitude of from 8,000 
 to 9,500 feet. Outside the mountain districts there are broad mesas, 
 or table lands, and great valleys; the mountain sides being covered 
 with growths of pine, cedar and spruce. The northern portions of 
 the Navajo land, especially in the high or mountain altitudes, is 
 cold in winter and cool in summer ; while the lower jx:>rtion is 
 extremely hot in summer, and mild in winter. The migratory 
 habits of the Xavajo enable him to conform easily to climatic con 
 ditions, and therefore he will usually be found in the most comfort 
 able part of his domain in summer or in winter. The ranges break 
 down toward the valleys and plains on either side, and are seamed 
 with many canons, that give rise to numerous small streams. The 
 canons furnish nearly all the tillable land in the mountain region, 
 and the streams the water for the irrigation of crops. 
 
 This country was inhabited before the advent of the Navajos; 
 and by a people of superior intelligence, and far more peaceful and 
 civilized than their successors. The valleys produced means of sub 
 sistence, and that they were cultivated long before the coming of 
 the Xavajos is shown by the remains of ancient reservoirs and well- 
 planned irrigating canals; the Navajos not yet having undertaken 
 anything of this kind in as scientific or practical a manner as their 
 predecessors. The canons were fertile, sheltered and watered, the 
 great walls of sandstone affording opportunity to cut homes in the 
 rock; or offering cliff-covered terraces upon which to build homes 
 that were at once safe retreats from the elements and from enemies. 
 
Pl " r 0ne -hH uaw-drws," ,f the 
 
 iiid 1860. 
 
THE NAVAJO LAND. 29 
 
 In this region we find many of the ancient cliff dwellings, relics 
 of a mysterious race of men. The Navajo land is peculiarly rich 
 in these monuments of a lost people; a large number of the more 
 remarkable ruins being found in the central part of the reservation. 
 The modern Indian has no traditions to enlighten us as to the kind 
 of people who preceded him in the occupation of that country, and 
 who lived in the great communal houses that line the canons ; neither 
 stories nor legends that throw any light upon the time these Cliff 
 Dwellers lived, or tell us who or what they were. He is but little 
 interested in these ruins of the homes of people who were gone 
 centuries before Columbus embarked upon unknown seas to find a 
 new world, and pays scarcely more attention to them than to the 
 rocks upon which they stand, or to the cliffs that rise above them 
 like silent sentinels keeping guard over the deserted homes of a race 
 whose work throws only a dim shadow upon the mists of an 
 tiquity. 
 
 That the Cliff Dwellers had disappeared long before the advent 
 of the Navajos is also quite evident. If the latter had found the 
 Cliff Dwellers occupying that field, there would have been war for 
 supremacy, and the story of battle would have been handed down 
 for many generations ; legends of war being the most enduring of 
 any subject with which an Indian mind has to deal. 
 
 Moreover the relics of these prehistoric people are evidence 
 that they were much further advanced in the domestic arts than 
 even the Navajos of the present time. It is not the nature of man, 
 even savage man, to retrograde, and it would seem that the Cliff 
 Dwellers had also advanced to a condition of peaceful life. The 
 many implements of domestic use and of agriculture found in the 
 ruins, and the absence of weapons of war, indicate this. 
 
 When white men first came in contact with the Navajos, they 
 found them far behind the condition that had been attained by the 
 Cliff Dwellers, as told by the mute eloquence of the work left behind 
 by the earlier people. The Cliff Dwellers were weavers of cloth, 
 
;ft) THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 fine specimens of cotton weave having been found in the older ruins ; 
 some in symbolical figures in colors that vie with the present Navajo 
 blanket. The Navajos did not learn to weave until comparatively 
 recent times; indeed, they did not spin a thread nor do any weav 
 ing until long after the occupation of the southwest by the Span 
 iards; and although they have dwelt in their present land for cen 
 turies, their period covers only a step backward toward the age in 
 which these prehistoric people of our southwest lived. 
 
 Major \V. H. Emory, of the United States army, who appears 
 to have been the first American who visited this region of ruins 
 and intelligently observed and described them, said in his "Notes 
 of a Military Reconnoissance," under date October 28, 1846: 
 
 "Red cedar posts were found in many places, which seemed to 
 detract from their antiquity, but for the peculiarity of this climate, 
 where vegetable matter seems never to decay. In vain did we 
 search for some remnant which would enable us to connect the 
 inhabitants of these long deserted buildings with other races. No 
 mark of an edge tool could be found, and no remnant of any house 
 hold or family utensils, except the fragments of pottery which were 
 everywhere strewed on the plain, and the rude corn-grinder still 
 used by the Indians. So great was the quantity of this pottery, and 
 the extent of ground covered by it, that I have formed the idea it 
 must have been used for pipes to convey water. There were about 
 the ruins quantities of the fragments of agate and obsidian, the 
 stone described by Prescott as that used by the Aztecs to cut out 
 the hearts of their victims. This valley was evidently once the 
 abode of busy, hard-working people. Who were they? Where 
 have they gone? Tradition among the Indians and Spaniards does 
 not reach them." 
 
 This Navajo country has been the home of the Indian so long, 
 that it is without doubt entitled to the distinction of presenting 
 evidence of the longest continuous occupancy by that race of any 
 portion of our territory ; and therefore the land of the Navajo lends 
 
THE NAVAJO LAND. 
 
 31 
 
 interest to the story of the Navajo. A great portion of the Navajo 
 country was originally a vast table-land underlaid by deep strata of 
 sandstone. The warring elements of thousands of years have 
 grooved it with valleys, gorges and canons, leaving flat-topped 
 mesas and perpendicular cliffs. 
 
 The wonderful Canon de Chelly is in the heart of the Navajo 
 
 country ; a deep, broad fis 
 sure in the table- and 
 mountain-land, walled on 
 both sides by great masses 
 of red sandstone. The 
 walls vary in height from 
 twenty feet at the mouth, 
 where the mountain- and 
 table-land slope to the 
 plain, to 800 feet where 
 the canon penetrates the 
 range. Within a distance 
 of some twenty miles, 
 which is nearly the length 
 of the canon, there are 
 about one hundred and 
 fifty cliff-dwelling ruins. 
 Several smaller canons di- 
 
 FIGURE 5* * "A Cliff Dweller s Sandal; upper and verging from the main 
 lower sides. More than 1,000 years old. -11.1 r* j 1 
 
 one, notably the Canon del 
 Muerto, and Monument Canon, also contain many ruins. 
 
 The pottery and other articles of domestic use found in the 
 homes of these ancient people would indicate that they were the 
 remote ancestors of the Pueblos; but how remote? "That s the 
 question." 
 
 It is reported by very good authority that whole ears of carbon 
 ized Indian corn have been found embedded in lava; the lava-flow 
 
;tt THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 containing this curious evidence of the long time ago of the Cliff 
 Dwellers having been later covered deep with debris. Charred roof 
 timbers with burned clay adhering to them, and many articles of 
 domestic life in close proximity, further indicated that these people 
 were there at the time of the last volcanic eruption in that country. 
 Calcined Indian corn has also been found on the floors of some of 
 the old dwellings, but having no ashes or cinders near to indicate 
 that it had been burned in an ordinary fire. The theory is becoming 
 popular that the grain was calcined by volcanic heat that raised w the 
 temperature of the atmosphere above the scorching point, and 
 destroyed all life. Great basins, formerly the beds of lakes, are 
 now filled with lava, and ruins of the abodes of men are found at 
 the edge of these lava beds in such position that they appear to 
 have been at one time on the shores of the lakes. 
 
 What of the theory that a great population was destroyed sud 
 denly by the fervent heat and poisonous fumes from molten lava? 
 The recent eruption of Mt. Pelee, and consequent destruction of 
 human life, helps us to believe it possible that the Cliff Dwellers 
 were destroyed in like manner. Implements of domestic utility are 
 found in great abundance, and which these people certainly would 
 have taken away with them if they had departed leisurely; while 
 the number of human remains discovered in and about the ruins 
 indicate a great and sudden fatality. Many writers have advanced 
 the theory that they were driven away by more warlike tribes, but 
 the skulls show no evidence that the people were killed in battle. 
 That was the age of the war club, and stone battle axe, and if the 
 people were slain by enemies, there would be many crushed skulls 
 among the remains; yet, as a matter of fact, a broken skull is 
 rarely seen. 
 
 It is probable that no single agency was responsible for the 
 abandonment of this region by these strange people. We can 
 readily l>elieve that the land was once very fertile, and that a gradual 
 change from humid to arid conditions shortened the food supply. 
 
THE NAVAJO LAND. 33 
 
 and that this, together with increasing numbers, compelled many to 
 abandon their homes and seek productive valleys to the south; 
 and that subsequent great convulsions of nature causing volcanic 
 eruptions completed the work. These would be followed by a long 
 period of desolation; and thousands of years may have elapsed 
 between the departure of the Cliff Dwellers and the restoration of 
 that region to conditions fit for the habitations of man. Gradually 
 the country recovered, and the soil, enriched by a long period of 
 rest, stimulated the growth of grass, shrubs and trees; and finally 
 the Navajo pilgrim from the north came in and took possession. 
 
 In the valleys, along the rivers, and near the foothills, but on 
 level ground, we find a class of ruins that we must believe are older 
 than the cliff dwellings. Great communal houses they were, some 
 isolated, some in scattered village form, but each individual house 
 presenting evidence of having sheltered a large community. We 
 find in each living rooms, prison cells, and estufas or places of meet 
 ing and worship, and can still trace the canals that brought water 
 from the river to each communal palace. There is evidence shown 
 by old lines of irrigating canals and ditches, that the valley all 
 around for miles was once cultivated by these people. 
 
 The more interesting of this class of ruins are found near 
 Aztec, N. M. There is one principal ruin that commands the most 
 attention. Many of the walls are still standing, at a height of forty 
 feet above the level of the surrounding country. The walls average 
 two and one-half feet in thickness, the outer and inner layers being 
 of dressed stone, and the center filled in with cobble laid in mortar. 
 As the pile appears now, it has a ground area of 300 by 400 feet, 
 and judging from the heaps of debris around, it must have been a 
 building 250 by 350 feet. Estimating the amount of debris that has 
 fallen from the walls, and calculating how much of the present 
 wall it would duplicate, we have a building seven stories high. 
 The rooms remaining are small, and it is not guess-work to assign 
 100 to each story, or 700 rooms to this great communal palace. 
 
34 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 Within a short distance are two more ruins of the same general 
 character, but smaller. 
 
 The quarry from which the flat stones of the outer parts of 
 the walls were brought is about three miles away. A wide trail 
 from which the cobble-stones have been removed, can still be traced 
 from the ruins to the quarry. As the Cliff Dwellers had no beasts 
 of burden, nor mechanical means of transportation, the millions of 
 pieces of stone required to build these great edifices must have been 
 carried by men, women and children. Either great numbers enabled 
 them to do the work in a few years, or it took generations of time 
 to transport the material and complete such a pile of masonry ; 
 though it is not likely that any others than those of the single 
 community that was to occupy it were engaged in its construction, 
 which was such that each story could be occupied when finished. 
 The walls are not all exactly alike in construction, and this suggests 
 that different masters, at different periods, may have superintended 
 the work, and therefore that perhaps a century elapsed between the 
 beginning and the completion of the building. An interesting fact 
 noted is that the beams forming the ceiling of each room, and sup 
 porting the adobe floor of the room above it, are of cypress, and not 
 cedar as is generally believed. The cypress long since became 
 extinct in that region. Cedar beams are found in similar buildings 
 in the valleys, and also in those in the cliffs. Many of these are 
 long, straight trunks from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter. But 
 no cedars that would make such beams are now to be found in 
 that country. Whether cypress or cedar, the trees from which 
 these timbers were obtained must have grown either hundreds of 
 miles away, or at a time when local climatic conditions were en 
 tirely different from what they now are. 
 
 But two of the rooms have been excavated, and in these a 
 number of mummified skeletons were found, together with many 
 pieces of pottery, and other relics of domestic life, such as beads, 
 stone implements, needles and awls of bone. With relation to the 
 
THE NAVAJO LAND. 35 
 
 mummified skeletons, it must not be inferred that they are anything 
 like the mummies found in Egypt. In consequence of the dryness 
 of the atmosphere, the bodies do not decay, but the flesh shrivels 
 upon the bones, form and features in many instances being well 
 preserved. As all these relics are found duplicated in the ruins of 
 the cliff dwellings, there is little doubt that the older buildings were 
 inhabited by the same race of people ; and therefore it is fair to pre 
 sume that these valley dwellers were driven from their homes and 
 compelled to establish new and safer ones in the fastnesses of the 
 canons and mountains because of the persecutions of hostile and 
 more warlike tribes. 
 
 In that country well-informed people to-day call the valley 
 dwellers "Aztecs," and the mountain or cliff people "Cliff Dwellers." 
 Call them what we will, Aztecs, Cliff Dwellers, or Cave Dwellers, 
 they were evidently of the same race. This is shown not only by 
 the similarity of their relics, but by conformity in stature, and in 
 form of skulls, of the remains of the people found in all the ruins. 
 
 People in other lands question the age of these buildings and 
 relics on the score that they would long since have crumbled to 
 dust if they were as old as claimed. But we must remember that 
 many of these homes are chiseled from the solid rock. Others are 
 built under overhanging cliffs and are never reached by a drop of 
 moisture, while the remains of the valley communal houses are 
 protected from the elements by heaps of debris. All are built at 
 a great altitude, many of them more than a mile above the level 
 of the sea ; and in an atmosphere so rare and dry that it is in itself 
 a preservative. In addition to these conditions, we must consider 
 that it is an arid country where the rain fall is very slight. In 
 such a climate and at such an altitude, there is seemingly no limit 
 to the length of time a cedar beam, for instance, would be preserved 
 if sheltered from the elements. 
 
 Of the age of these old communal buildings we can only guess. 
 We know that they were crumbling in ruins long before Columbus 
 
36 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 landed on our shores, from the fact that some explorers and investi 
 gators in their excavations have discovered old foundations upon 
 which later buildings, now in ruins, were erected. Therefore it is 
 not difficult to believe that these people may have occupied that 
 country even before the Chrisitan era. 
 
 We know the Cave, or Cliff Dweller is gone, and the Navajo 
 is there occupying the same region, but absolutely refusing to live 
 in any of the old houses, no matter if, as is sometimes the case, 
 they are quite accessible and could easily be made far more comfort 
 able than the rude huts in which he now lives. Many of the ruins 
 have served as burial places for the Navajos for a long time. The 
 Navajo burial cists are frequently found in them, some showing 
 evidence of having been constructed many years ago. The Navajo 
 burial cist is generaly a dome-shaped structure of stone, usually 
 circular, although some of them are oblong in form, with a square 
 hole left in the top for ceremonial purposes. The hole not being 
 large enough to admit a human body, we infer that the body was 
 laid on the ground and the cist or tomb built around and over it. 
 Ruins favorably located are also used by the Navajos as granaries 
 for the storage of wheat and corn, and as shelters for their flocks 
 of sheep. 
 
 The Navajo land is an arid country. Excepting at higher 
 altitudes in the mountain ranges, where the rainfall is greater, 
 crops do not thrive without irrigation. There is evidence that the 
 Cliff Dwellers cultivated a much greater area of the mesa and 
 canon lands than is now tilled by the Navajos. That the former 
 did not cultivate by irrigation all the available land is evident from 
 the fact that the remains of irrigating ditches and reservoirs are 
 not found in number and extent sufficient to have furnished water 
 for all the land, under present conditions. It is possible that differ 
 ent climatic conditions then prevailed, and that there was sufficient 
 rain to enable them to cultivate many tracts that are now entirely 
 arid. If this were not the case, it is a wonder how the swarms of 
 
THE NAVAJO LAND. 39 
 
 people who once occupied the thousands of communal houses man 
 aged to exist. 
 
 To-day all the arable land in that country, even if supplied 
 with irrigating ditches wherever water could be conveyed, would 
 not support one-tenth the population that once flourished there. 
 The relics of these ancient people indicate that they were not great 
 hunters, but were of a rather peaceful nature, largely devoted to 
 agricultural pursuits. Great quantities of corn are found in the 
 ruins, and but little evidence of any means of subsistence excepting 
 grains and fruits. 
 
 The Navajos have not made much of a success of their civil 
 engineering, and the few irrigating canals they have are illy con 
 structed and not laid out on approved lines. Wheat is grown to 
 some extent, but the fields are small, and all the work of harvesting 
 is by hand, the cutting being done with knives. Grain is threshed 
 in the old way, by placing the sheaves on the ground inside an 
 inclosure, and then turning in a flock of goats and driving them 
 around over the sheaves until the grain is threshed out. It is win 
 nowed by pouring it from a wide shallow willow basket, usually 
 upon a blanket spread upon the ground. After winnowing, it is 
 washed and then dried in the sun. There are two reasons for this : 
 the first, to thoroughly clean it, and the second, to make it softer, 
 so that it can be more easily ground by hand in the rude stone 
 "metate," which is still used, as it has been used by the Indians 
 of the southwest for hundreds of years, as the only means of 
 grinding their grain. Indian corn of a small flinty variety is grown 
 to some extent, but the cold nights and the high altitude are not 
 favorable to successful corn culture. 
 
 The peach is their favorite fruit and practically the only one 
 receiving very much attention. Peach trees were introduced into 
 New Mexico by the Spaniards at an early day, and in every sheltered 
 nook in the canons of the Navajo country, peach trees are found 
 growing without culture, apparently in a wild state ; but in fact 
 
40 THK NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 young trees and peach pits were planted there by the Xavajos. 
 When the peaches ripen it is a holiday time in the Navajo land, 
 and all who can be spared from tending the flocks gather at the 
 orchards and gorge themselves with the lucious fruit, which reaches 
 a high perfection of quality in these sunny gardens of Nature. The 
 peach orgie continues until all the fruit is eaten; as none is taken 
 away, nor preserved in the dried form. 
 
 They also grow apples, melons, squashes, pumpkins, onions and 
 beans, all of which thrive remarkably well under irrigation. Irish 
 potatoes are grown in the mountain regions and are of excellent 
 quality. Wild cherries and plums, different species of wild cur 
 rants and gooseberries, and wild blackberries and raspberries, 
 flourish to some extent. The fruits do not appear to receive any 
 attention in the way of cultivation, further than to plant the trees 
 or seeds, which are then left to do the best they can. 
 
 In spite of this, magnificent crops of peaches and apples are 
 grown, the soil in the canons seeming just fitted for them, there 
 being sufficient moisture there to bring them to perfection ; while the 
 climate and bright sunshine combine to make the Navajo fruits 
 of delicious quality. 
 
 The Navajo land is a mountain, mesa and valley country 
 (Figure 4), with the mountains predominating. A country of 
 cliffs and canons, presenting many difficulties to travel, which is 
 almost entirely over narrow trails, either on foot or horseback. 
 Of the rock formation, the most conspicuous is the bright red sand 
 stone that the elements have carved into many irregular and pictu 
 resque shapes. Often in the distance a mass of rock will appear 
 like a house or castle, and sometimes a spire, reaching high above 
 the surrounding rocks, seems to be surmounting a cathedral. These 
 scenes occur so often and appear so vividly real that they will for 
 ever remain a striking feature of the magnificent landscape that 
 makes the Navajo land a marvel of scenic beauty and grandeur. 
 
THE NAVAJO 
 
 THE Navajo has long been a conspicu 
 ous figure among the Indians of our 
 southwest. Strong, and made self- 
 reliant by many years of successful 
 warring upon neighboring tribes, he 
 had become imbued with his own im 
 portance, and therefore held aloof 
 from the advances of the white man 
 until long after nearly all the neigh 
 boring tribes had laid down their 
 arms. He was among the last to leave 
 the war-path of offense or defense, 
 and finally, when conquered, was 
 among the first to become self-support 
 ing ; though he still retains much of his 
 wild nature, and has absorbed fewer 
 of the white man s vices than have the 
 adjacent tribes J 
 
 The Navajos are descended from the great Athabascan family 
 of Indians which formerly occupied a large portion of British 
 America. The word "Navajo" was derived from the Spanish 
 "Navajoa," applied to a district on the San Juan and Little Colo 
 rado rivers; and as the Navajos occupied that region, the Spaniards 
 styled them "Apaches de Navajoa." They were not for from right 
 in claiming them as Apaches, as there is good authority for saying 
 that the latter were~Hescended from the same Athabascan stock. 
 The Navajos, however, do not recognize the name thus applied to 
 them, but call themselves Tinnai or Tinneh, meaning "the people." 
 
 FIGURE 7 * "he struts and poses in 
 great style until he scents his mother- 
 
42 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 Some authorities claim that these people entered their present 
 country in the Thirteenth Century, while others say they came in 
 the Fourteenth or the Fifteenth Century; but there seems to be no 
 basis but that of speculation upon which to attempt to determine 
 the period of their coming. \ The home of the Athabascans was far 
 to the north, and it is likely that by slow movement the Navajos 
 traveled south by easy stages, along the eastern ranges of the Rocky 
 Mountain region until they reached the great area of mountains 
 and plains in southern Colorado and Utah, and in northern New 
 Mexico and Arizona, in which they established themselves^ 
 
 They have may mythical stories of their origin. One is to the 
 effect that they came across a narrow sea beyond the setting sun, 
 and landed on the northern shore of this country. There they were 
 persecuted by enemies, and finally, in desperate straits, invoked 
 the Great Spirit, who sent them a great ship of rock upon which 
 they were safely carried high in air, and brought to their present 
 land. 
 
 The ship rock" of the Navajos is known to all travelers in 
 the southwest. Rising from a level plain, about thirty miles west 
 from Farmington, New Meixco, it stands out in strong relief from 
 whatever direction it may be viewed, and in its weird loneliness and 
 grandeur seems a fitting subject for an Indian legend. The Navajos 
 consider the rock sacred. 
 
 Another story is that the ancestors of the Navajo tribe were 
 brought from the far north on the back of a great bird ; and still 
 another, that they came up from the center of the earth. Their 
 legends differ as to the means of transportation, but, with the excep 
 tion of the idea that they came up out of the earth, they generally 
 agree that they came from the far north. The most acceptable of 
 their stories is that they were guided by a messenger from the sky, 
 and after a long journey, and much suffering at the hands of 
 enemies they met on the way, they were finally directed to their 
 present country. There is also a vague tradition among them that 
 
THE NAVAJO. 43 
 
 they came by water. But, about the only things we certainly know 
 of their history is their Athabascan origin, and that they have been 
 in our southwest for a long time. 
 
 The Navajos are much attached to the region in which they 
 live, and often refer to it as "our Mother land." They tell us that 
 the Apaches were once Navajos, and that they came "long time 
 ago," before the time of four old men ancestors of the present 
 Navajos father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great 
 grandfather; and to this they add another story that "long time 
 ago" whole bands of Pueblos ran away from the Spaniards and 
 joined their people. They also tell that the Cliff Dwellers were 
 carried away by a "bad wind" long before the Navajos arrived; 
 which is probably a mere attempt of theirs to account for the de 
 serted and ruined buildings. 
 
 The land was not entirely the Navajos ideal, the climate being 
 far milder than that of their original home in the north. Shelter, 
 mountains, water and pasture were there, but at the time of their 
 arrival pasture was not of direct value to them. Wild game was 
 not as plentiful as farther north, and there was much arid land. 
 We do not know why they concluded to occupy such a country, 
 but it is probable that, expecting to find a better region, one better 
 suited to them, by going farther, they were halted in their march 
 south by the power of numbers of the Pueblos, whose northern 
 borders they had invaded. 
 
 At this time the Navajos were not a great Indian nation. The 
 tribe was small and, from the best evidence we can now obtain, 
 was not of a warlike disposition. They were not noted for success 
 in hunting wild game, and subsisted very largely upon nuts and 
 roots, clothing themselves with the skins of such animals as they 
 killed. They soon began to receive recruits from the Apaches, and 
 other neighboring tribes, which accounts for their present com 
 posite or mixed character as a race; but prior to 1680, they were not 
 strong enough to engage in anything but a predatory warfare with 
 
44 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 neighboring 1 tribes. They have always been known as "field" or 
 "plains" Indians, to distinguish them from the habitually sedentary 
 tribes, like the Pueblos. 
 
 The industries of an aboriginal people are shaped by their sur 
 roundings and the character of the country in which they live. 
 The climate, soil, forests or plains, adaptability for agriculture, and 
 game for the chase, all help to determine how they can best sustain 
 life; and when this is decided, their habits will be found to reflect 
 their environment. 
 
 The Xavajos are sedentary only to the extent that they have 
 for a long time occupied about the same region. Within this im 
 mense area, they have been restless, wandering shepherds, without 
 permanently fixed habitations. CSoon after 1662, by pillage or 
 barter, they secured a few sheep from the Pueblos who, in turn, 
 had obtained them from the Spaniards. This acquisition had much 
 to do with changing their mode of living; and as they learned the 
 art of weaving, it marked the beginning of an important epoch in 
 their tribal history.^ 
 
 The Navajo country is not adapted to extensive agricultural 
 operations, and probably was not well supplied with game even in 
 the earlier times; but if it had been, it would not have taken many 
 years for its new occupants to destroy the wild animals to the 
 extent, at least, of making them a precarious dependence as a source 
 of food supply. { The climate demanded clothing far beyond the 
 supply of the skins of wild animals, and some industry had to be 
 found suited to their environment, or the people must migrate again. 
 
 Fortunately, the pasture land helped them to solve the prob 
 lem, and the Navajos turned out to be good shepherds. Their 
 flocks increased until, for a number of years, they have counted a 
 half million sheep as their own. This influenced their destiny, and 
 has transformed them from fierce marauders into comparatively 
 peaceful pastoral people. Nearly every family owns a flock of 
 sheep and goats; the flesh of the latter being more generally used 
 
I 
 
 < K 8 NAVAJOS WORSHIPING THE ELEMENTS 
 (From tht fainting by V. P. Sauirwtn) 
 
THE NAVAJO. 47 
 
 for food than that of the sheep. With a population of 20,000, their 
 herds would have an average of twenty-five sheep to every man, 
 woman and child. The tendency of the flockmaster of the west 
 is toward wealth, and the Navajos have proceeded far enough in 
 that direction as to be beyond want, while many of them are rich. 
 It is to be remembered that what would be good pasture land in 
 the Navajo country, would be thought barren waste in the east, 
 or in other lower altitudes. It requires about six acres to feed 
 properly a single Navajo sheep, and as water is scarce and found 
 only at long^ intervals, the shepherd must keep his flocks moving 
 constantly. 
 
 / ^^/ 
 
 CjThe whole family moves with the sheep, and lives practically 
 out of doors; or, at best, in hastily constructed shelters made by 
 throwing up a circle of brush, and covering it, or not, as material 
 may or may not be at hand, ; These changes from one pasturage 
 to another, often take a family over hundreds of miles, and during 
 this migratory life the spinning and weaving go on, the simple 
 machinery required for the industry being a part of every camping 
 equipment. As winter approaches, they turn toward sheltered 
 places, but may or may not return to the abode of the previous 
 winter. 
 
 In a particularly rich region well supplied with water, a number 
 of families will remain in close proximity to one another, but they 
 are usually held together by family ties, rather than by a com 
 munity of interests. It is a singular fact that, notwithstanding 
 accessions from the Pueblos, who were essentially village Indians, 
 there are no villages of Navajos. Their dwellings are not built 
 in conspicuous places, but seem to be located rather with a view to 
 concealment. The springs, rivers and other watering places, are 
 by the tribal laws considered common or public property, but tillable 
 lands are subject to individual ownership; such ownership, however, 
 is established only by priority of occupation, and can be retained 
 only so long as the land is being tilled. 
 
48 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 The Navajos are communal in their form of government and 
 customs, particularly as relates to the grazing lands, which are, as 
 a general rule, common property; and the cutting of timber, or 
 use of water, and the harvesting of peaches or wild fruits that 
 grow in the canons are not restricted on account of any individual 
 claims of ownership. There is a head chief, who owes his position 
 to election; but, with one exception, none of these chiefs has ever 
 achieved great fame as a leader in warfare, or great reputation as a 
 wise or sagacious ruler; and none has stood out as a prominent 
 figure in war or peace. The exception, and the only one of whom 
 we have a record, who made a reputation among his people as a 
 wise ruler, was Manuelito, born in 1821, elected chief in 1850, 
 and who served until his death in 1894. His rule was of an advis 
 ory nature, rather than arbitrary, which no doubt accounted for his 
 popularity while living. 
 
 There are many sub-chiefs, whose jurisdictions extend over 
 only small areas of tribal territory; and upon them devolves the 
 local execution of the few lightly-resting tribal laws they have. 
 These executives do not occupy their positions by hereditary right; 
 neither are they always elected. Oftentimes, in consequence of 
 superior intelligence or tact, thy grow into their places, as it were, 
 and their influence is, as a rule, in proportion to their ability as 
 diplomats. The usual method of "appeal" from the unsatisfactory 
 ruling of a local chief is by disregarding it, and there is no court 
 by which he can compel obedience. 
 
 The Navajos have some little industries, aside from their gen 
 eral one of blanket-weaving. The women knit stockings, using 
 four needles in much the same manner as the whites, but do not 
 seem to be able to learn to form the heel or toe. Although the 
 knitting needles they now use are procured from the whites, they 
 are no evidence that the Navajcs learned the art of using them 
 from the whites, as we find knitted leggings made from human 
 hair or the fibre of the yucca, as well as the bone and wooden 
 
PLATE II An old example of Navajo work in "pink bayeta," native 
 wool and native dyes, made about 1850. 
 
THE NAVAJO. 49 
 
 needles used in making them, in the ruins of the cliff dwellings 
 in the Navajo land. The Pueblo women, from whom the Navajos 
 learned blanket-weaving, were also knitters. The Navajo women 
 are quite skilful basket-makers, but confine their work principally 
 to sacred baskets used in the marriage and other ceremonies. Only 
 the old women, who are familiar with the rites of the medicine 
 men make these baskets. 
 
 Baskets needed for domestic use are procured by barter 
 from their neighbors, the Apaches, who are skillful basket-makers ; 
 and in like manner, they procure pottery from the Pueblo Indians. 
 The Navajos are expert in tanning buckskin and making it into 
 moccasins, leggings and other garments, but the bead work on 
 these articles is done by the Utes, who also tan buckskin and make a 
 great variety of ornamental bead work. 
 
 The principal tribes of the southwest, the Navajos, Apaches, 
 Utes, and Pueblos, are each celebrated for some form of handi 
 craft, and as one does not encroach upon the work of the other, 
 it leads to much trading between the tribes, each desiring to possess 
 articles made by the others (Figure 9.) The Navajos weave 
 blankets and make ornaments of silver. Each of the four divisions 
 of the Apache tribe the Mescalero, Pima, Jacarilla and San Carlos 
 Apaches, makes baskets, differing slightly, but strongly character 
 istic. It is only a few years since the Shoshone Indians, of Idaho 
 and Utah, made long pilgrimages to the south for the purpose of 
 trading with the Navajos, the Shoshones being celebrated for their 
 fine buckskin garments and other articles, beautifully ornamented 
 with beadwork. 
 
 In late years many fine blankets of Navajo weaving, from 
 twenty to forty years old, have been found among the Shoshones 
 of Idaho and Utah. Mrs. A. L. Cook, of Pocatello, Idaho, has a 
 good collection gathered in that vicinity, which the Shoshones 
 probably could not have procured in any other way than by barter 
 with the Navajos. 
 
50 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 The Pueblo women are celebrated for pottery of rough, highly 
 ornamented, and unique patterns. In this work they are artists; 
 the scrolls and figures with which their pottery is decorated, nearly 
 all being symbolical, and to a great extent form the basis of Navajo 
 symbols and patterns. 
 
 The Navajo is not a lazy Indian, but is willing to work at 
 anything remunerative; and in this he is an exception among red 
 men generally. He herds sheep and cattle, and does all the farm 
 work, and is ready to serve the white man at any kind of labor. 
 He is also a silversmith, and is quite skilful in hammering and 
 engraving buttons, buckles and discs for belts. These latter are 
 from three to four inches in diameter, and round or oval in form, 
 roughly engraved, and of pure silver of value in weight of from 
 one to two dollars each. 
 
 The early Spanish invaders found very skillful workers in 
 metals among the Pueblo Indians. As we shall see later on that 
 the Navajos learned the art of weaving from the Pueblo Indians, 
 it is reasonable to assume that their first knowledge of working in 
 metal came from the same source. The Pueblo Indian, on account 
 of his permanent abode, has better facilities than the Navajo, but 
 in spite of his disadvantages, the latter is the most skillful. 
 
 The Navajos metal-working equipment consists of a rude and 
 temporarily constructed forge, charcoal, crucibles of clay, molds 
 of clay or sandstone, a blow-pipe, tongs, and such requisites as he 
 can get at the trading posts emery paper, files, and so forth. The 
 anvil is any piece of iron of sufficient weight that he can find a 
 piece of railroad rail, or the butt of an ax, a wedge, or a heavy bolt. 
 One of Goodman s photographs (Figure 10) shows a Navajo 
 silversmith at work, and illustrates the crude facilities he has at hand. 
 
 Belts and necklaces of silver are their pride, and are worn 
 more by the men than by the squaws. The material used is either 
 Mexican or American silver dollars, or bars of silver which they 
 procure from the traders. They are so skillful and patient in ham- 
 
THE NAVAJO. 
 
 51 
 
 mering and shaping that a fairly good-shaped teaspoon is often made 
 of a silver dollar without melting and casting. As they are able 
 to procure and learn to use better facilities, their work is growing 
 better ; the ornaments they make now being superior to those made 
 a dozen years ago. Some of their patterns are beautiful, though 
 
 FIGURE 9 NAVAJO INDIANS TRADING 
 
 (From the fainting of F. P. Sauerwen) 
 
 entirely original. One buckle in my collection, so far as artistic 
 design is concerned, might have been made by Tiffany. Weaving 
 is, however, their principal and most attractive industry. 
 
 The Navajos should give their women credit for the wide and 
 distinctive reputation their tribe has achieved solely from the 
 Navajo blanket. Possibly the men are willing to concede this, 
 which would largely account for the social independence of the 
 
52 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 Navajo squaw as compared with the women of adjacent tribes. 
 She certainly occupies a higher plane than is common among 
 women of the North American Indians. 
 
 The Navajos have many songs illustrating their tribal myths. 
 Songs for the storm, rain and wind ; songs of peace and war ; songs 
 of love and hatred, joy and sorrow. Strangely enough the Xavajo 
 women do not join in any of the songs. Her neighbors, the Pueblo 
 women, sing with the men in songs of ceremony; and the "Metate," 
 or corn-grinding, song of the Zuni women, is peculiarly weird and 
 musical. The Navajo woman is songless : her art being spinning 
 and weaving, to which she devotes her life. Silently, almost sadly, 
 but all the while devotedly, she toils, and is an example of patient 
 industry and love for the work in which she is engaged. 
 
 The Navajos have a few fetiches or talismans, supposed to 
 possess mysterious power, and to be the habitations of deities from 
 which aid may be expected. These are generally represented by 
 an animal; the horse and sheep being prominent as such fetiches. 
 The horse fetich is carved from white limestone, and usually the 
 work is done by a medicine man. It is carried in a medicine bag 
 on occasions of the hunt, or of any important undertaking or jour 
 ney, and as they depend upon the endurance of their horses in 
 nearly everything they udertake, this fetich is to insure the strength 
 of the animal. ^ The sheep fetich is carved from white spar, and 
 usually is finishecl with eyes of turquoise. These are carried by 
 the shepherds to insure the fecundity of their flocks, to protect 
 them against disease, and guard them against animals of prey. 
 These two charms cover the most important two possessions of the 
 Navajos the horse and the sheep, and are the only ones now in 
 use of which I have any certain evidence. 
 
 The Navajos have many superstitions, and believe in witch 
 craft, and that sickness and death are caused bv a "Chinde" or 
 devil. The antidote for witchery is singing and drumming over 
 the patient by friends or relatives, and if this does not effect a cure. 
 
THE NAVAJO. 53 
 
 the "Shaman" or medicine man is called in. They believe that at 
 the ends of a rainbow they will find messages from the Great 
 Spirit; and anything bright and beautiful, is to them a harbinger 
 of good. 
 
 Early travelers in the Navajo land detail the story of an old 
 Navajo sorcerer, or wizard, who, having been suspected of prac 
 ticing the "black art," confessed it, seemed proud of his pretended 
 powers, and told his people that by charms of human hair and flesh, 
 powdered wolves teeth, and dried and powdered lizards, he could 
 destroy the whole Navajo nation. He was tied, shot with arrows, 
 and asked why he did not kill his captors; but he died without 
 having injured any of them. He was probably a crazy old man, and 
 because of his delusions was murdered by his superstitious people. 
 
 The Navajo goddess is "Assunnutli" (the woman in the sea). 
 This goddess is reputed to be of double sex, and has dispensed many 
 favors to the Navajos; having, among other gracious acts, sent 
 blue corn to the men, and white corn to the women. When property 
 is stolen they sing to "Assunnutli" to ascertain the identity of the 
 culprit. 
 
 Like all Indians, the Navajos are inveterate gamblers, and 
 will wager everything they possess, even to the clothing on their 
 backs. They are fond of foot-racing and wrestling, and horse- 
 racing is also very popular with them. 
 
 Not being the most mighty of modern Nimrods in the chase, 
 a favorite hunting plan of the Navajos is to build two long con 
 verging lines of brush and stones, ending at an enclosure, into 
 which the animals are driven to be slaughtered. All animals of 
 prey are killed, but in case of game animals, such as antelope, or 
 deer, some are allowed to escape, partly on account of superstition, 
 and partly to avoid exterminating a valuable food supply. 
 
 To the Navajos the bear is a sacred animal, and probably be 
 came so in the early years when they had no weapons with which 
 to successfully combat him; the idea of sacredness arising from 
 
54 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 the ability of the bear to win in battle with them. A respect for 
 strength and invulnerability, rather than regard for sacred things, 
 mav thus have given Bruin a place among their deities. 
 
 They will not catch nor eat fish. When the white men first 
 invaded their country they found the mountain streams fairly alive 
 with trout, which would not have been the case if the Indians had 
 desired them for food ; as they had sufficient cunning to have de 
 pleted the streams if they had so used fish. They believe that the 
 spirits of their dead enter into the fish, and are fond of relating 
 the fable that long time ago" their people killed a great number 
 of their enemies in battle and threw the bodies into the river, and 
 that the bodies turned into fish. 
 
 Believing that the wind gives them life, they often go at night 
 to some high place during a storm and there worship the elements 
 (Figure 8). The heavy rain they call the male rain, and the light 
 rain the female rain ; believing both to be necessary for the proper 
 maturing of their crops. 
 
 The Navajos have a horror of the dead, as well as of any 
 habitation in which a person has died; and as many of the old 
 cliff ruins contain the remains of the people who once lived in 
 them, they will not under any circumstances use them as a place of 
 residence. The nearest they come to this is that oftentimes they 
 carry away stones from the ruins to be used in building dwellings 
 for themselves. 
 
 From the Conquest of Mexico, up to 1821, the land of the 
 Xavajos was a part of the Spanish territory. In 1821 the people 
 of Mexico threw off the Spanish yoke and established an inde 
 pendent government. Beginning about the year 1750, and during 
 all the subsequent time of the Spanish and the Mexican rule, the 
 Navajos were on the war-path. They made frequent raids into 
 the country south of them and occupied by the Pueblo Indians and 
 Mexicans, and ran off cattle, sheep and horses, and carried away 
 such grain and forage as they could transport. In retaliation, the 
 
THE NAVAJO. 55 
 
 Mexicans made many counter expeditions into the Navajo country, 
 which became the scene of continual warfare. 
 
 Lieutenant Pike, writing- from New Mexico in 1808, in speak 
 ing of the "Nanahaws" (Navajos), states: "The Nanahaws are 
 situated to the northwest of Santa Fe, and are frequently at war 
 with the Spaniards. They are supposed to be two thousand warriors 
 strong, and are armed with bows and arrows and lances. This 
 nation, as well as all others to the west of them bordering on Cali 
 fornia, speak the language of the Apaches and Lee Panis, who are 
 in a line with them to the Atlantic." 
 
 Major Emory, in his "Notes of a Military Reconnoissance" 
 in the summer of 1846, writes as follows of Las Vegas, New 
 Mexico : 
 
 "The village, at a short distance, looked like an extensive 
 brick-kiln. Approaching, its outline presented a square with some 
 arrangements for defense. Into this square the inhabitants are 
 sometimes compelled to retreat, with all their stock, to avoid the 
 attacks of the Eutaws [Utes] and Navajos, who pounce upon 
 them and carry off their women, children and cattle. Only a few 
 days since, they made a descent on the town and carried off 120 
 sheep and other stock. As Captain Cooke passed through the town 
 ten clays since, a murder had just been committed on these help 
 less people." 
 
 Major Emory quotes the address made by Colonel Kearney 
 to the Mexicans at Santa Fe, August 15, 1846, which was as 
 follows : 
 
 "Mr. Alcalde, and people of New Mexico: I have come 
 amongst you by the orders of my government, to take possession 
 of your country, and extend over it the laws of the United States. 
 We consider it, and have done so for some time, a part of the 
 territory of the United States. We come amongst you as friends 
 not as enemies ; as protectors not as conquerors. We come 
 
56 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 among you for your benefit not for your injury. Henceforth I 
 absolve you from all allegiance to the Mexican government, and 
 from all obedience to General Armijo. He is no longer your gov 
 ernor. (Great sensation.) I am your governor. I shall not expect 
 you to take up arms and follow me, to fight your own people, who 
 may oppose me ; but I now tell you, that those who remain peace 
 ably at home, attending to their crops and their herds, shall be 
 protected by me, in their property, their persons, and their religion ; 
 and not a pepper, not an onion, shall be disturbed or taken by my 
 troops, without pay, or by the consent of the owner. But listen! 
 He who promises to be quiet, and is found in arms against me, 
 I will hang. 
 
 "From the Mexican government you have never received pro 
 tection. The Apaches and the Navajos come down from the moun 
 tains and carry off your sheep, and even your women, whenever 
 they please. My government will correct all this. It will keep 
 off the Indians, protect you in your persons and property; and, I 
 repeat again, will protect you in your religion. I know you are 
 all great Catholics; that some of your priests have told you all 
 sorts of stories that we should ill-treat your women, and brand 
 them on the cheek as you do your mules on the hip. It is all false. 
 My government respects your religion as much as the Protestant 
 religion, and allows each man to worship his Creator as his heart 
 tells him is best. Its laws protect the Catholic as well as the 
 Protestant; the weak as well as the strong; the poor as well as 
 the rich. I am not a Catholic myself I was not brought up in that 
 faith ; but, at least one-third of my army are Catholics, and I respect 
 a good Catholic as much as a good Protestant. 
 
 "There goes my army you see but a small portion of it; there 
 are many more behind resistance is useless." 
 
 This was upon the first entrance into Santa Fe by the United 
 States troops. On September 30, 1846, writing of the mountain 
 country northwest of Santa Fe, Major Emory says : 
 
THE NAVAJO. 59 
 
 "I saw here the hiding places of the Navajos, who, when few 
 in numbers, wait for the night to descend upon the valley and carry 
 off the fruit, sheep, women and children of the Mexicans. When 
 in numbers, they come in day-time and levy their dues. Their 
 retreats and caverns are at a distance to the west, in high and inac 
 cessible mountains, where troops of the United States will find great 
 difficulty in overtaking and subduing them, but where the Mexicans 
 have never thought of penetrating. The Navajos may be termed 
 the lords of New Mexico. Few in number, disdaining the cultiva 
 tion of the soil, and even the rearing of cattle, they draw all their 
 supplies from the valley of the Del Norte." 
 
 This conditon continued, and for many years after the United 
 States government became dominant in New Mexico and Arizona 
 the Navajos persisted in their depredations, robbing and plundering 
 from the Mexicans and Pueblos, and from our own people as well. 
 An expedition was organized in 1863 under the direction of Kit 
 Carson, which was successful in capturing the Navajo leaders and 
 compelling a general surrender. The prisoners were then taken 
 under military guard to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where they 
 were held until 1867, when, upon their promise to be good, they 
 were returned to their old home, the present Navajo reservation. 
 
 At that time there were about 8,000 in captivity, but this num 
 ber did not, however, represent the full strength of the nation. 
 Many had hidden in the fastnesses of the mountains, and others 
 had deserted to other tribes rather than go as prisoners of war to 
 Fort Sumner. As near as can be ascertained, they numbered at 
 that time about 13,000 all told, but they have since steadily in 
 creased, and now aggregate somewhere near 20,000. Upon their 
 return to the reservation the government paid them four annuities, 
 and in 1869 distributed among them a large number of sheep and 
 goats. Since that time they have been self-supporting, excepting 
 in the winter of 1894-95, when, on account of a severe drought 
 in the preceding summer, their crops had failed, and therefore 
 
60 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 the government had to distribute sufficient rations to prevent suf 
 fering. 
 
 The Navajo is quite free from the signs of physical degeneracy 
 so apparent in neighboring tribes. He is a robust Indian, but his 
 type is not a fixed one. While his remote ancestors were of Atha 
 bascan stock, and much of the stalwart figure of the true Navajo 
 is traceable to that origin, the numerous accessions from other tribes 
 of differing physical contour, have produced a decidedly composite 
 physical condition which is noticeable in difference of stature, in 
 facial characteristics, and in general personal appearance among 
 different members of the tribe. It is likely that this mixture of 
 the blood of various adjacent tribes with that of the original 
 Xavajos, has had much to do in bringing about their present su- 
 l>erior physical and mental condition as compared with other tribes 
 in that region. As a rule, they are intelligent above the average 
 North American Indian, which is demonstrated by the advantage 
 they have taken of really unfavorable conditions to become inde 
 pendent of help from the government and, in a way, to become rich. 
 
 Their marital relations are peculiar to themselves, and a Navajo 
 may take, not as many wives as he can support, but as many as he 
 can manage; and having reached this limit, the wives do much 
 toward supporting the husband. The men are the herders of the 
 sheep and cattle, hunt wild game, build the dwellings and, as a 
 rule, till what little land is cultivated. 
 
 The lineage of the Navajo is traced through the female line. 
 The woman may, and often does, own the flocks of sheep, and as 
 owner of the home her word is law in all that pertains to domestic 
 affairs. She must, however, prepare the family meals, bring the 
 wood and water, and work all her spare time at spinning and weav 
 ing. She has absolute control of her children, and her husband 
 may not even discipline them without authority from her to do so. 
 The only exception to her authority over the affairs of her offsping 
 is when a daughter reaches marriageable age, when the bargain 
 
THE NAVAJO. 61 
 
 or sale to a suitor for her hand must be made with the father. 
 If, upon trial, a wife proves unsatisfactory, and the husband can 
 not bring about a trade with another Indian who is in the same 
 trouble, he may return the wife to her parents; but the purchase 
 price need not be returned to the dissatisfied husband. The women 
 do not consider this an indignity. If a Navajo woman is fond of 
 her husband, her conduct is usually such as to merit his approval ; 
 but it is quite likely that if she rebels, or becomes unsatisfactory, 
 it is because she wishes to be traded to some one she likes better, 
 or returned to her home to await a new matrimonial venture. 
 
 Their food is of the simplest. The meat most generally used 
 is mutton and the flesh of the goat, which are stewed; a pot for 
 the evening meal being kept on the fire most of the day. This, with 
 bread and coffee, constitutes the supper, with the exception that 
 when pumpkins, potatoes or onions are in supply, they are usually 
 stewed with the meat. They have no tables nor chairs, the stew 
 being placed on the earthen floor in a big dish, where the family 
 gathers around it, taking out the food with the fingers. They 
 always eat everything in sight; nothing is left, no matter how 
 much is cooked. As a rule there are only two regular meals, 
 breakfast and supper ; the breakfast being the simpler meal of the 
 two. If meat is used at all for breakfast, it is fried in a skillet, 
 and eaten with bread and coffee. 
 
 Even the permanent dwellings are almost devoid of furniture 
 without tables, chairs or bedsteads. They have plenty of blankets 
 and undressed sheepskins, and when an Indian gets sleepy he rolls 
 himself in a blanket and lies down upon the floor anywhere that 
 suits him best. They do not use pillows. The only article of fur 
 niture common in all Indian homes of the southwest is a pole sus 
 pended from the ceiling along one side of the room, which does 
 duty as a wardrobe. 
 
 As relates to dress, the woman is the more barbaric in her 
 fancy. Gaudy calicos and bright red woolen cloths are used for 
 
02 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 skirts which, with sashes or belts of bright color, beads, silver and 
 copper ornaments, and fancy beaded moccasins and leggings, con 
 stitute her chief desires; and in these, she dresses herself as occa 
 sion may require. The working dress of a squaw is usually a loose, 
 ill-fitting garment of calico reaching to the knees ; the legs and feet 
 being incased in buckskin leggings and moccasins without orna 
 mentation. She cares nothing for a head-dress of any kind, except 
 ing a careless arrangement of the long, thick, jet-black hair Nature 
 gave her, which is parted in the middle, and either allowed to hang 
 at will, or gathered or tied in a knot, or made into a long braid. 
 
 The marriage ceremony seems to have no fixed form, the rite 
 usually consisting of eating in some manner, and is quite simple. 
 Sometimes a cake or loaf, prepared by the medicine man, is placed 
 on the ground, and at other times a pudding is used ; either of 
 which the medicine man marks off in lines and spaces, for a reason 
 we do not understand. The prospective bride and groom are 
 seated beside the food, and at a signal they eat the man beginning 
 and the woman following taking the food from along the lines 
 marked out. When the circuit of the cake, or loaf, or pudding, is 
 completed, they stand up and are pronounced man and wife. After 
 the ceremony the squaws prepare a feast, and singing and dancing 
 are kept up until all are tired out. In some instances the medicine 
 man pours water upon the hands of the bride and groom just before 
 eating begins, and at other times they go together to a spring or 
 stream and wash each other s hands prior to the ceremony of eat 
 ing. There are other unimportant variations in the ceremony, but 
 the above will convey a general idea of the marriage rite. 
 
 An unfortunate feature of Navajo domestic life is the common 
 aversion of the husband to the wife s mother, but there is no 
 mother-in-law interference in domestic affairs. After marriage 
 the husband will not look at or speak to his mother-in-law, and 
 must have no communication with her under penalty of some 
 blight upon his life. They believe that if a husband gazes upon 
 
THE NAVAJO. 03 
 
 his mother-in-law he will lose his eyesight, or that some other 
 terrible calamity will happen to him. It is the duty of the mother- 
 in-law to announce her approach, so that the husband can conceal 
 himself until she has gone. 
 
 The case of Pablo, a Navajo singer, whose picture appears in 
 Figure 7, is a present example in point. He puts on his best and 
 struts arid poses in great style until he scents his mother-in-law, 
 when he disappears into hiding, a sneaking coward until she is gone. 
 
 As the Navajo is polygamous, it is possible that this singular 
 custom originated in a theory of protection for the husband. A 
 man with half a dozen wives would have as many mothers-in-law, 
 and, according to beliefs prevalent among white people, would also 
 have a pretty hard time if all of them exercised influence over his 
 household. Therefore such a custom may be a very grave necessity 
 in Navajo land. 
 
HABITATIONS 
 
 FIGURE u * "may be almost anything that can be 
 considered a shelter" 
 
 THE habitations of a prim 
 itive people are of especial 
 interest because they are 
 always typical ; each order 
 of rough architecture be 
 ing in harmony with the 
 type of man who built it, 
 and in keeping with his 
 manner of life. As in in 
 fluencing his industries, 
 climatic conditions, the 
 general character of the 
 land on which he lives, mountains, plains, or forests, will modify 
 to some extent his methods of providing shelter. But as a rule, 
 the changes will not show marked departure from the general type 
 evolved and long followed by a primitive tribe of people, unless 
 there has been something like a revolution in modes of living. 
 
 Such a revolution befell the Navajos, and brought about a 
 corresponding change in the forms of their abodes. As already 
 related, prior to the time that they became possessed of sheep, cattle 
 and horses they lived in the open field, and as plunderers of their 
 neighbors. In no sense an agricultural people and without fixed 
 habitations in that period of their career, the change from a con 
 dition of continued nomadic warfare to that of a pastoral life, was 
 a very great one. 
 
 The Navajo is not a dweller in tents, wigwams or tepees, as we 
 know these forms of habitations. Long use of a word often leads 
 to the belief that the word was coined because it so fitly described 
 
M THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 the object. \Ye think a wigwam is named just right to describe 
 that kind of a structure; long association of the word with the 
 object having been the means of such perfect reconciliation. The 
 Xavajo house is a "hogan," and, although the name is a compara 
 tively new word, it seems to fit. The original Navajo word is 
 "qugan," early converted into the popular name hogan, by which 
 his home is known wherever the Navajo Indian is known. An 
 expression made by a friend of mine when he first saw a Navajo 
 home "Well, it is a hogan, sure enough," illustrates the fitness of 
 the name, which is applied to the two distinct forms, the winter and 
 the summer hogan. From a little distance the winter hogan looks 
 like a rough conical mound of earth, with an opening into darkness. 
 
 The Navajo hogan (Figure 12), at Putnam Springs, New 
 Mexico, is typical of the winter habitation. The photograph was 
 taken during a time of drought, when the structure was deserted ; 
 which accounts for the absence of a blanket from the doorway. 
 This is an old hogan, showing many repairs by additions of branches 
 of trees to secure the earth covering, and of the gnarled cedar trunks 
 supporting the door-frame. Unsightly and unshapely as it may 
 appear, it is built according to rule ; a rule so rigid as to be almost 
 a religious ceremony, and requiring every detail to be strictly 
 carried out. 
 
 When a winter hogan is to be built the site is usually chosen 
 in a secluded or sheltered spot ; the choice always being such as 
 will permit the door to face the east. The ground is leveled, and 
 then a circle is drawn of the desired size ; there being no general rule 
 as to the diameter or height of a hogan. From about a foot inside 
 this circle the ground is dug out to a depth of twelve or eighteen 
 inches, and the bottom of this basin-like excavation is the floor of 
 the hogan, to reach which a downward step or two must be taken; 
 the foot or so of undisturbed soil left around it, and concentric 
 with the circle, forming a circular seat or bench that encompasses 
 the depressed floor. \Yhen this floor is smoothed and stamped until 
 
1 An old blanket of" native wool in natural 
 colors and native dves. 
 
HABITATIONS. 67 
 
 it is level and hard, the foundation is considered complete. Usually 
 the builder of such a home calls to his assistance a number of his 
 friends, and the building is completed in one day. Men are first 
 sent out for the principal five timbers or poles. Each of three of 
 these must be forked at one end, and of such shape as to firmly 
 interlock when placed in position; the other two, sticks for the 
 doorway, should be straight poles ; all being trimmed and the bark 
 taken off as a rough finish. The forked poles are laid on the 
 ground, the forked ends together, and with the butts so arranged 
 that each is outside the circle; one at the north, one at the west, 
 and one at the south. The two straight poles are then laid with 
 their butts to the east, and with the tops just inside the forks of 
 the other three, and far enough apart to leave the desired space 
 for the doorway. The timbers or poles used are usually from 
 eight to twelve inches in diameter and from ten to twelve feet long. 
 In rearing the framework of the edifice, the three forked tim 
 bers are raised upright and then leaned toward the center until 
 the forks lock. The poles for the doorway are placed at the same 
 ground distance from the center as the others, and leaning inward 
 and converging until their tops rest on each side of the apex; say, 
 one foot apart at the top, and spreading to about four feet apart 
 at the base, leaving an opening from the outer circle of the base 
 to the center of the house. Two posts with forked tops are then 
 planting upright between the door-poles at their base, standing about 
 :ive feet high, and across these a lintel is placed in their forks ; this 
 arrangement forming the doorway, proper, over which a blanket 
 is usually hung. The space between the top of this vertical door 
 frame and the leaning door-poles behind it, is levelly roofed over 
 until it comes in contact with the two converging door-poles, and 
 at the inward end of this bit of flat roof an opening is left through 
 which smoke may escape. The sides of the structure are now filled 
 in with smaller poles, the butts resting on the circle, with their 
 tops reaching to the apex. After these poles are placed as closely 
 
68 
 
 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 together as possible, cedar boughs are woven in. and if convenient, 
 the whole is covered with pine or cedar bark. The entire edifice 
 is then further covered with earth to a depth of from four to eight 
 inches, and the house is complete. A hogan from sixteen to 
 eighteen feet in diameter averages about eight feet in interior height 
 above the center of the floor. 
 
 FU;I;KK 12 A NAVAJO WINTER HOGAN 
 
 Colonel Cecil A. Deane writes me as follows concerning some 
 hogans of peculiar form observed by him : 
 
 The hogans I refer to I have seen only at one place, and I 
 think they have never been described in government reports nor 
 by any writer. On the little-traveled road leading in a southwest 
 erly direction from the great ruins on the Charco to Gallup, N. M., 
 about ten miles northeast of the Continental Divide, and thirty 
 miles northeast of Gallup, we find a group of eight hogans at a 
 place called Tigue (pronounced Togay). The peculiar location 
 
HABITATIONS. 69 
 
 of these hogans is worthy of notice. At some remote period of 
 time, a lake, comprising perhaps 2,000 acres, covered the present 
 site of the hogans. Either because of the breaking of its retaining 
 boundary, or because of evaporation, or both, the lake became dry, 
 leaving a perfectly level surface even now wholly devoid of vege 
 tation. Near the east margin of the lake bed are numerous springs, 
 a few of which discharge tepid water. Around each spring is 
 found a circular deposit of dark sedimentary matter of perhaps three 
 or four feet in height, which has been left by the overflowing 
 waters, none of which is fit for use. Right in the midst of these 
 miniature geysers, we find a large spring of clear, cold water, which 
 is enclosed with walls of stone brought from the adjacent bluffs, 
 and near it are the eight hogans I have referred to. They are 
 circular in form, each about fifteen feet in diameter and eight feet 
 at their greatest height. The walls are made of rough-dressed 
 cedar or pinon logs, laid horizontally, having half-locking mortices 
 at either end, and of such length as results in a nearly vertical wall 
 to a height of about four feet, when their length is gradually re 
 duced till the apex is reached, where an opening is left for the 
 escape of smoke from the fire which burns in the center of the 
 hogan. The doorway is, as in all instances, on the east side, which 
 is closed by a blanket suspended from a horizontal lintel. The 
 space between the logs is filled with small blocks of wood, and 
 clay mortar, and the exterior surface is plastered with that ma 
 terial. No part of the floor is sunk below the general level, as I 
 have observed in hogans of other types, and the obtuse angle formed 
 where the walls meet the floor is used as a place of storage for 
 the cooking utensils, blankets, etc., usually found in a Navajo 
 home. When I visited these hogans in the spring of 1900, all were 
 occupied, but I was informed through my interpreter, that the 
 greatest number of their owners were more or less distant with 
 their flocks of sheep or goats. As I was informed that this spring, 
 which supplies water for the occupants of these hogans, is the only 
 
70 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 spring of living water within a radius of about fifty miles, we may 
 reasonably infer that the permanency of the water is the cause 
 of the permanent character of the hogans." 
 
 A Navajo summer hogan is a structure altogether different 
 from the winter home, and may be almost anything (Figure n) 
 that can be considered a shelter. A circle of pine or cedar boughs, 
 either planted in the earth or piled up three or four feet high, is 
 one form. In this an opening is left in one side, the one most 
 convenient, and without regard to points of the compass which 
 are so important in the case of the winter hogan. In the center of 
 this a fire is built, blankets are thrown over projecting branches 
 for shade and cover, and in the enclosure the household labors and 
 other duties are carried on. The family eat and sleep, the squaw 
 sets up her loom, and weaving and other work go on just as regu 
 larly and as industriously as in the more pretentious home. 
 
 The house just described is the Navajos rudest or simplest 
 form of construction. There are degrees of betterment according 
 to the length of time the shelter is expected to be used, or to the 
 facilities or material at hand for construction. An excavation in a 
 hillside, covered and sided with poles and brush, but with the entire 
 front left open, is another form. Rough w r alls of stone, two or 
 three feet high, arranged in a semi-circle and covered with any 
 handy material is still another. A perpendicular wall of rock is 
 sometimes utilized as a support for a "lean-to" constructed 
 against it. 
 
 A rather picturesque summer hogan is the one shown in 
 Figure 3, which is from a photograph by Goodman, of Bluff, Utah. 
 It is simply a frame of small trees, with the front entirely open ; 
 the roof and three sides being lightly covered with branches of 
 cottonwood and willow trees with the leaves left on them. 
 
 So the forms vary as conditions of occupation, location and 
 materials vary, or as the industry or ingenuity of the builders 
 differ. Occasionally a rich Navajo will build a hogan of logs or of 
 
HABITATIONS. 71 
 
 rough stones laid up without mortar, and covered with timbers 
 and earth ; and he may also be ambitious enough to add a window, 
 but if he does so it is never opened. 
 
 This form of winter hogan is shown in Figure 13. The pic 
 ture clearly exhibits the method of construction, and also the forms 
 of "Hostine" (Mr.) Joe, and the old medicine man who owns the 
 outfit; the former on the left, and the latter on the right. So 
 great a departure from the usual type of winter hogan is very 
 modern, and is prompted by a desire to imitate the white man. 
 
 It will be noted that Navajo habitations are not, as a rule, of 
 a very permanent character. A home that may be built and dedi 
 cated to use in a day, is not of great value, and may, for good 
 reason, be abandoned at any time. For this, ill luck, sickness, or 
 death may be sufficient cause, and therefore we find many deserted 
 hogans that are in fairly good condition for occupation. As a 
 strong superstition forbids further use of a hogan in which a person 
 has died, often it is then destroyed; as no one of the tribe can be 
 persuaded to enter it, much less live in it. 
 
 Of late years, if the owner of a hogan considers it of more 
 than ordinary value, or is too lazy to construct a new one, he sees 
 to it that the sick person is carried out, so that if he dies, he must 
 die out of doors, and thus save the good reputation of the house. 
 
 Another quite common structure, and well distributed over 
 the entire area of Navajo territory, is the "sweat-house." This is 
 a miniature hogan, capable of accommodating only one person, 
 who is required to take a lying or sitting position in it. It is freely 
 used by the sick, and often by the well ; and is one of the medicine 
 man s "strong cards" for the cure of disease, and for the casting 
 out of evil spirits. After stones have been heated and placed inside, 
 the patient crawls in, the opening is closed, and he is soon in a pro 
 fuse perspiration. When he has cooked long enough, he is taken 
 out and rubbed dry wfth dry sand. The results as described by 
 
72 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 the Navajos are much the same as those from our more elaborate 
 Turkish baths. 
 
 In Figure 6 is shown a sweathouse covered with a Navajo 
 blanket to retain the heat better; the remains of the fire in which 
 the stones were heated appearing in the foreground. A patient was 
 inside undergoing the sweating ordeal when the photograph was 
 taken ; and to obtain the privilege of taking it Mr. Matteson was 
 required to negotiate satisfactorily for a buckskin the attendant 
 Indians desired to sell. 
 
 When a Navajo hogan has been completed, it must be dedicated 
 by a ritual ceremony. The woman first clears the house of all 
 rubbish accumulated in building, whereupon the husband builds 
 a fire directly under the smoke hole. He then rubs the timbers 
 with white corn meal, and also strews some of it in a circle around 
 the fire, while repeating in slow, measured tones, the ritual of dedi 
 cation. All the neighbors are then invited in and the ceremonial 
 songs are sung, by which evil spirits are frightened away, and 
 happiness, health and good luck invoked for the occupants. 
 
 As their hogans are not as a general rule built in the open, 
 but concealed among the pines and cedars, or in the canons, no 
 definite idea can be obtained of the population of the country by 
 merely passing through it. In recent years the common Sibley 
 tent has been used in summer to some extent, as it is less work to 
 take it down, move and set it up again, than to build even the 
 simplest summer hogan. 
 
 The medicine lodges are built much after the style of the 
 hogans, but usually much larger. In these the medicine men live, 
 and nearly all the ceremonial religious rites are celebrated in them. 
 Most authorities agree that the Navajo is not a particularly religious 
 Indian, for the reason, I suppose, that he does not make much ado 
 about it. He has no public snake dances nor other ceremonies that 
 are likely to attract the attention of a casual visitor; nor does he 
 set up totem poles or idols in his public places. His only conspicu- 
 
THE NAVAJO. 75 
 
 ous appliance of worship is the altar in the medicine lodge, which 
 is hidden from the sight of white men, excepting those who are 
 in very great favor . 
 
 These altars are fantastically ornamented with feathers, stalks 
 and tassels of corn, grain, grasses and the like, and on the floor in 
 front of the altar, are strewed strange symbols in colored sand 
 sand paintings," as they are called by white folks; and over these 
 the incantations are made, prayers are said and songs are sung, 
 to invoke happiness, and success in their every undertaking. 
 
 Their songs of ceremony are according to long established rule, 
 and are known only to the medicine men. The medicine men 
 always demand pay for interceding with the gods, and a song or 
 prayer commands a price commensurate with the importance of the 
 case and of the assistance asked; and also with the ability of the 
 applicant to pay. In this, as in many other things, our Navajo 
 friend travels on lines parallel with those followed by many of his 
 more enlightened white brethren. 
 
 Professor George H. Pepper relates that an old medicine man 
 told him that he "often used colored clay and stones, but that they 
 did no good the patient only thought so ; which was one way 
 of saying that it was simply mind cure. I was glad to hear this 
 from an old medicine man of good standing, for it served to show 
 how readily they would accept a new regime in the medicine 
 world." 
 
THE BEGINNING 
 
 FIGURE 14 * * "familiar landmarks today, but which 
 were far more populous then than now" 
 
 THE Spaniards thirst for 
 gold stirred them to 
 undertake the most haz 
 ardous and difficult ad 
 ventures. They had con 
 quered Mexico, laying 
 waste the fair land of the 
 Aztecs; and in doing so 
 they disregarded all hon 
 orable rules of conquest. 
 They burned and pillaged 
 and murdered, until the 
 admiration that was excited by their ambition and valor, was lost 
 in the shame of the civilized world for the barbarous warfare they 
 had waged against the peaceful and civilized Aztecs. 
 
 After they had established themselves in New Spain the 
 territory now known as Mexico they began at once to plan ex 
 plorations to regions of the north, about the wealth of which they 
 had heard fabulous tales ; and were particularly anxious to penetrate 
 as far as the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola, having heard especially 
 remarkable stories of their opulence. 
 
 The first expedition was that of Coronado in 1540, but was 
 without any very important results. In 1582, General Espejo or 
 ganized and led another expedition, and as early as 1600 the subju 
 gation of the natives was practically completed, and the Spanish 
 colonization of New Mexico had begun. The subjugated people 
 were forcibly converted to the religion of the invaders, and then 
 enslaved. 
 
7- THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 The Pueblo Indians Great Deity was the God of Nature ; their 
 Creed, peace and harmony. The white man s God of Revelation 
 brought to them the example of carnage, oppression and slavery; 
 and they endured the indignities put upon them by inhuman 
 masters, until even patient Pueblo human nature could endure it 
 no longer. Among the traditions preserved by the present clans of 
 this once numerous and powerful tribe, is one to the effect that the 
 culminating cause of their ancestors rebellion against their cruel 
 enslavers was that several hundreds of their people had been 
 smothered in mines in which they were compelled to work. 
 
 Lieutenant Pike s narrative of events in New Mexico, written 
 while he was at Santa Fe in 1808, shows that the cruelties practiced 
 by the Spaniards prior to the insurrection in 1680, were continued 
 up to the time of his visit. The retribution he invoked came with the 
 Mexican War : 
 
 "The civilized Indians of the Province of New Mexico con 
 sist of what were formerly twenty-four different bands, the several 
 names of which I was not able to learn. But the Keres were one 
 of the most powerful ; they form at present the population of St. 
 Domingo, St. Philip s and Deis, and one or two other towns. They 
 are men of large stature, round, full visage, fine teeth, and appear 
 to be of a gentle, tractable disposition ; they resemble the Osage 
 more than any nation in my knowledge. Although they are not 
 the vassals of individuals, yet they may properly be termed the 
 slaves of the state ; for they are compelled to do military duty, drive 
 mules, carry loads, or in fact perform any other act of duty or 
 bondage that the will of the commandant of the district, or any 
 passing military tyrant, chooses to ordain. I \vas myself eye 
 witness to a scene which made my heart bleed for these poor 
 wretches at the same time that it excited my indignation and con 
 tempt, that they should suffer themselves with arms in their hands 
 to be beaten and knocked about, by beings no ways their superiors, 
 unless a small tint of complexion could be supposed to give that 
 
THE BEGINNING. 79 
 
 superiority. Before we arrived at Santa Fe, one night we rested 
 near one of the villages where resided the families of two of our 
 horsemen. They took the liberty to pay them a visit in the night. 
 Next morning the whole were called up, and because they refused 
 to testify against their imprudent companions, several were knocked 
 down from their horses by the Spanish dragoons with the butt end 
 of their lances ; yet with the blood streaking down their visage, and 
 arms in their hands, they stood cool and tranquil ! Not a frown, 
 not a word of discontent or palliation escaped their lips. Yet, what 
 must have been the boiling indignation of their souls, at the insults 
 offered by the wretch, clothed with a little brief authority. But 
 the day of retribution will come in thunder and in vengeance." 
 
 In the year 1675, under crafty leaders, the Pueblos began 
 plotting rebellion, and all the tribes in central and northern New 
 Mexico soon joined in the determination to drive the Spaniards 
 from their land. From Pecos on the east to Moqui on the west, 
 from Taos on the north to Isleta on the south, the seeds of rebellion 
 were sown. They took deep root in the hearts of the zealous 
 devotees of the religion of the Indian, and were stimulated by hatred 
 of the religion or Christianity of the Spaniards. The villages of 
 Taos, San Ildelfonso, Isleta, Laguna, Acoma, Zuni and Moqui, 
 most of which are familiar landmarks to-day (Figure 14), but" 
 which were far more populous then than now, all joined to free 
 their land from the hated Spaniards; and they were successful. 
 
 In the year 1680, their victory was made complete and not a 
 Spaniard was left alive in all their territory, over which Spanish 
 power had ruled so unwisely. 
 
 During that period of affliction the peaceful nature of the 
 Pueblos had greatly changed. The reader will remember that in 
 all their narratives the Spaniards mention the Pueblos as "civilized" 
 Indians ; even before they had succeeded in occupying their terri 
 tory. The white man had taught them the beauty of conquest and 
 carnage, and they had acquired the taste for human blood. 
 
80 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 As the Spaniards retreated, the Indians first gave way to re 
 joicing; then to destroying everything that reminded them of Span 
 ish rule. The churches were burned, as were all official documents 
 relating to Spanish government, and the priests were subjected to 
 great indignities. Their robes were worn in mockery, then torn 
 to shreds and burned, that there might be no relic left of a religion 
 that had been so closely associated with Pueblo misfortunes. Those 
 of the tribe who had been baptized, were washed in public places, 
 to cleanse them of what they thought to be evil influences. Then, 
 being their own masters again, they were confronted with a problem 
 more difficult than they had anticipated the problem of self- 
 government. 
 
 During the period of Spanish domination, such tribal laws as 
 the Pueblos had had before the coming of the Spaniards had been 
 almost forgotten by the old, while the young had never personally 
 known them. Hating bitterly the laws and the rule which they 
 had overthrown, freedom was accompanied by extremely diversi 
 fied sentiments among the people, and therefore they soon found 
 the problem of self-government a difficult one. An attempt was 
 made to unite all the tribes under the direction of a single ruler, 
 but there were, however, too many conflicting interests; too many 
 village clans ; too many ambitious chiefs ; too many crafty, design 
 ing medicine men ; and not sufficient knowledge of even the simplest 
 tribal laws to stem the current of dissention that finally arose. They 
 began fighting among themselves, and civil strife destroyed the 
 power of numbers. 
 
 The Spaniards took advantage of the situation, and by 1694, 
 just fourteen years after the insurrection, General Vargas had re 
 conquered the whole field, and his people were again in full pos 
 session. 
 
 All this was in the interest of our friends, the Navajos, who 
 had taken no part in the insurrection of 1675-80, and had not aided 
 the Pueblos against the second coming of the Spaniards. As either 
 
THE BEGINNING. 81 
 
 the Pueblos or the Spaniards presented an unprotected point, they 
 took advantage of it to rob and plunder, and in this way accumulated 
 stores of food, secured many sheep, and grew stronger while the 
 Pueblos were growing weaker. Upon the return of the Spaniards 
 many Pueblos had joined the Navajos, preferring to become even 
 Navajos rather than again to live under Spanish rule. The deserters 
 from the Pueblos were in sufficient number to add materially to 
 the strength of the Navajos, and from that date the latter began 
 to rank as the most powerful of the southwestern Indian tribes. 
 In the foregoing some of the historical circumstances under 
 which the art of weaving was introduced among the Navajos are 
 outlined. Their first step toward it was in the acquisition of wool- 
 bearing sheep by their plundering raids, but their first knowledge 
 and practice of it were due to the later presence among them of the 
 many Pueblos who had joined them in consequence of the restora 
 tion of Spanish rule in the last decade of the Seventeenth Century. 
 The Pueblos, as we shall presently see, had long been familiar with 
 the art, but up to that time the Navajos had known nothing of 
 spinning and weaving. 
 
ANOTHER STEP 
 
 FIGURE 15 "At San Ildelfonzo 
 church in New Mexico" 
 
 he built the first 
 
 THE Spanish writers who 
 dealt with early events in 
 New Mexico transmitted 
 to us many misleading 
 statements ; but among 
 their more accurate narra 
 tives, and the more inter 
 esting in connection with 
 the present subject, are 
 those relating to the intro 
 duction of sheep and of 
 the weaving of woolen 
 cloth, in that region. 
 
 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to enter 
 New Mexico. He was the treasurer of the fleet of Narvaez who had 
 been commissioned by the King of Spain to undertake an expedition 
 of conquest to the mainland of Florida. Misfortune beset the under 
 taking, and a part of the company, which had landed and which in 
 cluded de Vaca, having lost communication with the vessels, built 
 boats in which to leave Florida. These were scattered by a storm, 
 and late in 1528 de Vaca and his boat-crew were cast ashore on the 
 coast of Texas where all were soon made prisoners by Indians. 
 After six years of captivity de Vaca and three of his men escaped, 
 and set out to make their way overland to their countrymen in 
 Mexico; Cortez having invaded that country in 1519. Their course 
 was northwest, and they evidently proceeded as far in that direction 
 as central New Mexico, whence they made their way southward 
 and reached the City of Mexico in 1536. 
 
84 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 In his "Relacion" of his travels, de Vaca tells of having- found 
 linen and woolen cloth in use by the natives, and at one place on 
 his journey fine cotton shawls; all of native production. 
 
 Friar Marcos in his account of his expedition into the Pueblo 
 country in 1538 mentions the natives as being dressed in cotton 
 cloth ; and says the men of Cibola wore long cotton gowns reaching 
 to their feet. He further states that he encountered later great 
 numbers of men and women wearing cotton clothing, and that the 
 people told them that others, living farther north, were dressed 
 in woolen cloth ; and also that they described a little animal which 
 furnish the material of which the woolen cloth was made, 
 Another report came to him of the people of Totonteac who dressed 
 in woolen clothing like that worn by the Spaniards. 
 
 Coronado s expedition of 1540 traversed the country that had 
 been visited by Marcos, and also went further north, into the "land 
 of gold" of which Marcos had said he had heard ; and in the account 
 of this undertaking the natives are described as being dressed in 
 cotton clothing. 
 
 Reports of Espejo s expedition of 1582 tell of native people 
 encountered in the vicinity of the present city of Albuquerque, New 
 Mexico, who dressed in striped cotton cloth ; and say that Espejo 
 received from one of their chiefs a present of 4,000 bolls of cotton, 
 of which product the people are represented as growing large 
 quantities. 
 
 The chief purpose of Onate s expedition was to colonize the 
 territory now known as New Mexico. At San Ildelfonzo, an 
 Indian village about ten miles south of Espanola, he built the first 
 church and soon after founded a convent at the same place. Upon 
 the return of the Spaniards in 1692, the old village was destroyed, 
 and the people then moved just across the Rio Grande and estab 
 lished the village at its present location. The church built in the 
 new village later is reputed to be a copy of the older one, and is 
 shown in Figure 15. 
 
ANOTHER STEP. 85 
 
 The Pueblo Indian villages, mentioned in the preceding chap 
 ter, may not all now occupy their original sites, and they were 
 known under entirely different names. The Spaniards gave them 
 new names when they first occupied that region, and they are 
 known to us only by the Spanish names. A majority of the villages 
 are, however, located just as found by the invaders, and many of 
 the buildings are known of record to be more than 300 years old, 
 and it is not improbable that some of them have been in existence 
 for at least 500 years. The walls are entirely of adobe, and the 
 buildings are roofed with pine and cedar timbers covered with the 
 same material as that of the walls. Comparing the present good 
 condition of these mud buildings with the now dilapidated stone 
 structures of the Cliff Dwellers, we have further evidence of the 
 great age of the latter. In Onate s time the people living in this 
 village were engaged in growing cotton and weaving cotton cloth. 
 
 Other Spanish adventurers tell of trading with the Pueblo 
 Indians for sufficient cotton and woolen cloth to replace the worn 
 out clothing of their soldiers. 
 
 There is no doubt that cotton flourished in New Mexico at the 
 time mentioned. Recent experiments in the Territory demonstrated 
 that it can now be grown there, and probably with profit. The 
 weaving of cotton cloth by the Pueblos certainly was practiced long 
 before the Spanish invasion, and as they had had no communication 
 with any Europeans prior to that time, their art, unless inherited, 
 must have had an independent origin and development among them. 
 
 The fact that cotton cloth of good weave and texture had been 
 found among the older relics of the cliff people, throws the practice 
 of the weaving art among races in, or that have been in, our south 
 west, far back into a very remote period. Accepting as possible, 
 or even probable, the proposition that the Cliff Dwellers were the 
 far-removed ancestors of the Pueblos, it would seem that the latter 
 had inherited their knowledge of weaving, and had been weavers 
 from an unknown time in the past. An especially fine specimen of 
 
THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 the Cliff Dwellers weaving may be seen in the American Museum 
 of Natural History in New York. This very interesting- pre-his- 
 toric textile fabric is a cotton blanket, that was originally about 
 three by five feet in size. It was woven in colors, and has designs 
 similar to those on pottery found in the cliff dwellings; the designs 
 bearing some resemblance to those now used by the Xavajos, but 
 which they derived from the Pueblos. In color and general appear 
 ance this ancient cotton blanket also presents some resemblance 
 to Navajo work, but nothing very definite. 
 
 I have some specimens of the Cliff Dwellers weaving that have 
 no designs and are without colors, made of a mixture of cotton 
 and yucca fibre. Cotton and yucca yarn and rope have also been 
 found along with the articles above mentioned, buried in the sand 
 in burial trenches, and in the buildings, sometimes deep down under 
 the debris now forming the floors. 
 
 In my collection of Cliff Dwellers sandals, which includes both 
 the plaited and woven forms, six different methods of making them 
 are to be seen. Most of them are rough plaiting in many instances 
 the different forms of basket weaving being illustrated. A few, 
 however, show evidence of great skill. The one illustrated in 
 Figure 5 is a rare and interesting member of the collection, one of 
 the pair of engraving showing the top, the other the bottom of the 
 sandal. In this sandal appear designs in colors which are almost 
 in form with those found in some old Pueblo weaves and also similar 
 to figures in later work of the Navajos. The designs show plainly 
 on the upper side of the sandal. The lower side is remarkable in 
 the fact of having delicate raised zig-zag lines in the perfect pattern 
 of the Navajo lightning emblem. The weaving is very skillfully 
 done, and would be a credit to an artisan of the present. The warp 
 is threads of yucca the woof evidently cotton, or some plant fibre 
 much finer and softer than the yucca. 
 
 That the early Spanish adventurers found, as they said, no 
 raw wool in the Pueblo country, is no doubt true. No wool-bearing 
 
FLATF, I V A curious and rare old blanket of" sacred significance, 
 \\o\rn about I Sac. 
 
ANOTHER STEP. 87 
 
 sheep existed in North America until introduced by the Europeans ; 
 Cortez having brought the first sheep soon after the conquest of 
 Mexico. The earliest Spanish colonists in New Mexico had taken 
 cattle, horses, sheep and swine with them from Old Mexico and, 
 as the climate was mild and the pasturage fair, the sheep increased 
 rapidly and became a great source of wealth. 
 
 The Pueblos appear to have soon discarded the spinning of 
 cotton for the easier spinning of wool, making many coarse woolen 
 fabrics without any color, excepting the natural black and white 
 of the wool and such shades as they could produce by a mixture 
 of the two. At this time the Navajos had not become spinners 
 and weavers. They made no fabrics of any kind excepting a rough 
 plaiting of the leaves and fibre of the yucca and other plants. As 
 they became possessed of sheep and learned spinning and weaving 
 from Pueblos who had joined them, as already related, the Pueblos 
 who had remained in their old homes turned their attention to the 
 making of pottery as an art, and to herding cattle and tilling the 
 soil as means of subsistence. Therefore the art of weaving declined 
 among the Pueblos and, in the same ratio, was taken up by the 
 Navajos. But some of the Pueblo women are still weavers, and 
 the diagonal weaves of the Hopis are superior to any work done by 
 the Navajos so far as texture is concerned. 
 
 The Hopi Pueblos use but few colors; and such blankets as 
 they weave are of serape size, and ornamented with stripes only, the 
 colors being blue, white and black, with sometimes a little red. 
 The yarn is coarsely spun and the weaving loosely done. Many 
 blankets that are shown as of Zuni or Hopi weave are made by 
 the Navajos, being woven to conform to the fancy of the Pueblos. 
 The Hopi women make a good black diagonal cloth used by them 
 for dresses, and which is often beautifully embroidered in patterns 
 that might have come from Persia. They also weave and embroider 
 the kilts and sashes worn in the ceremony of the snake dance, and 
 
88 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 which are made of white yarn and embroidered in black, red and 
 green. 
 
 With the exception of the two families, the Zuni and Hopi, 
 none of the Pueblos now do any weaving worth mentioning. Prob 
 ably, if the Pueblo Indians were shepherds, and were obliged to 
 seek the most profitable disposition of their wool, they would com 
 pete with the Navajos in blanket-weaving. But as they lack the 
 raw material, and are not much inclined to industry, it is quite 
 likely that when the Navajo squaw folds her loom, which she will 
 do before many years shall have passed, blanket-weaving among 
 the Indians of our country will be at an end. 
 
 It is true that no form of primitive loom such as the Navajos 
 now use is found among the Pueblo Indians, excepting with the 
 Hopis and Zunis. When conditions influenced the other Pueblo 
 tribes to stop spinning and weaving, the distaff and loom soon 
 disappeared, for the indolent Pueblo Indian would not care to pre 
 serve anything he did not need, especially if it would make firewood. 
 That all of them were weavers from an early period, there is no 
 room for doubt, for the stories of the Spanish pioneers in that 
 country agree in testifying that these people were found well sup 
 plied with woven cotton fabrics. 
 
 But the tales about woolen cloth being in use by the Pueblos 
 at that time were evidently due to lack of care in ascertaining and 
 recording facts. It is, however, possible that the llama or some 
 similar animal capable of affording material for a fabric resembling 
 one of wool, flourished in New Mexico in early times, and that it 
 was cloth made of such material that the Spaniards supposed to 
 be made of wool. But as there is neither knowledge nor tradition 
 of the natives ever having had such animals, it is more probable 
 that the woolly hair of the buffalo which was then common in that 
 country, or the fur of the rabbit which may have been the "little 
 animal" mentioned by Marcos, was used to make such cloth. 
 
 The hair of animals, and the feathers of birds, were woven 
 
ANOTHER STEP. 89 
 
 into the meshes of cotton fabrics found in the cliff ruins, but no 
 threads of wool. Therefore it would seem that if the Pueblo 
 Indians spun the hair or fur of animals, at all, it was an industry 
 handed down by the pre-historic people. 
 
 It is interesting to note from the various relics found, and from 
 accounts by the Spaniards, that some of the early native people of 
 our southwest did not depend upon the skins of wild animals for 
 clothing, but were spinners and weavers of such material at hand 
 as could be worked into textile forms, no matter how rough or 
 crude. 
 
THE BLANKET 
 
 FIGURE 16 ~ x ~ "there was then, as now, a Navajo 
 flock in every valley" 
 
 THE Pueblo weaving was, 
 as we have seen, the 
 foundation on which the 
 Navajos have built up an 
 industry which has, as a 
 barbaric art, assumed a 
 position of considerable 
 commercial importance. 
 In spite of this fact, which 
 has brought them into 
 rather close contact with 
 white men in disposing of 
 
 their products, the native characteristics of these people other 
 than their warlike traits have been less affected by associ 
 ation with civilization than the large majority of North Amer 
 ican Indians; and to this we may ascribe the barbaric beauty 
 of their woven patterns and the harmony of bright colors worked 
 into them. As soon as they are influenced by the white man s taste 
 to the extent of changing their patterns and colors, the beauty of 
 the Navajo blanket will be doomed. Let us hope that it will be a 
 long time before such influences become apparent in Navajo 
 weaving. 
 
 It is frequently said that many of the so-called Navajo blankets 
 are now made in eastern factories, but this is not true to any great 
 extent. Some garish things in attempts at Navajo designs are 
 so made, but the likeness is too poor to be called even an imitation; 
 and no dealer with the slightest sense of honor would offer one 
 
02 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 of the horrid things as a Navajo blanket. Tourists have only 
 themselves to blame if they are sometimes thus deceived. 
 
 The Navajos often prefer to wear blankets made in the east, 
 for two reasons: one is that they are lighter; and the other, that 
 they can sell a good blanket of their own make for a sum sufficient 
 to purchase a "Mackinaw." Not long ago a lady visitor saw one 
 of these Mackinaw blankets on the back of a Navajo buck at 
 Gallup, N. M. She immediately began negotiations, and finally 
 got the blanket for about three times what is cost "poor Lo," and 
 went away rejoicing, believing she had a genuine Navajo blanket. 
 Why? because she had bought it from a Navajo Indian! Inci 
 dents of this kind having been repeated frequently have, no doubt, 
 given rise to the story and belief that a large proportion of what 
 are said to be Navajo blankets are not made by the Navajos, but 
 are the products of eastern looms. Nothing, however, can be 
 further from the truth. A visit to the establishments of all the 
 Indian traders in or about the Navajo nation, or to those in any of 
 the cities of the east or west in which Navajo blankets are offered 
 for sale, will fail to find a single blanket represented as of Navajo 
 origin that was not made by the Navajos themselves. 
 
 The following letter from a prominent manufacturer of 
 woolen blankets explains the situation to date, and seems to settle 
 beyond question that no good imitation will soon be made : 
 
 "PENDLETON WOOLEN MILLS. 
 "Fleece Wool Blankets, Indian Robes and Shawls. 
 
 "PENDLETON, OREGON, June 23, 1902. 
 
 "DEAR SIR We have your letter of the I7th and also the 
 sample of the Navajo. We note what you say about blanket people 
 saying this has never been successfully imitated. It is for a good 
 reason. It is impossible with any machine yet made to get this 
 effect. On our looms there are but two shuttle boxes on a side. 
 Running a different shuttle in each box only allows for four colors 
 
PLATE V A modern rug-blanket, made in 1891, 
 
THE BLANKET. 93 
 
 at a time. In this robe a certain color appears and then is cut out. 
 On a machine when a color once starts across the beam, it must be 
 carried clear to the other side, either on one side or the other. If 
 you lose it from the top, it must appear somewhere on the bottom. 
 It is necessary for it to go clear across to be able to return. In 
 weaving by hand, one can simply take the shuttle out any place 
 desired and lay it aside until wanted again, covering the end be 
 tween the filling threads and the warp. 
 
 "We can get this diamond pattern, however, if you think it 
 would do, but cannot get the effect nor the weave as it appears in 
 this robe. The Racine people are making a shawl something after 
 this pattern, but can only use a limited number of colors, for the 
 reasons explained above. 
 
 "We could do this. We could get something like this pattern 
 and then work with two colors for a certain width, and then change 
 to two others, giving a striped effect. For instance, we could work 
 with black and yellow, the diamond or pattern appearing in yellow 
 and the background in black, and then change to green and red, for 
 a certain width, and so on. This, however, would not produce the 
 effect you are after. 
 
 "On this kind of a proposition we can quickly tell you we 
 cannot do anything except go ahead and try to get up something 
 that is impossible. If you think a robe something like I have 
 described would sell, let me know and we can get out some, but they 
 will be far, far from the Navajo effect. 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 "PENDLETON WOOLEN MILLS." 
 
 I have traveled extensively throughout our southwestern coun 
 try, and have examined the stocks of nearly every Indian trader 
 and dealer in Navajo fabrics; and in no instance has a spurious 
 blanket or rug been offered me as of Navajo make. I have not 
 always agreed with the dealers statements regarding the age, com- 
 
94 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 position or coloring of their blankets, but I am, however, pretty 
 welly satisfied that in the main they are sincere in their representa 
 tions, and place their goods before their customers with the best 
 knowledge they possess. Some of them have been so long in the 
 business that they are authorities upon the subject. 
 
 To know very much about the Navajo blanket in general re 
 quires about the same kind of experience that a diamond dealer 
 goes through before he is able to tell a genuine stone at a glance. 
 Indeed, the knowledge comes only through such experience, and is 
 usually attended by more or less expense; though it gives much 
 pleasure, even if you do have to pay for it. 
 
 To see your collection of blankets grow, knowing that each 
 addition was made with a little better taste or skill than the preced 
 ing one, is a genuine delight. 
 
 The term "blanket" is used to describe everything of Navajo 
 weave, chiefly for the reason that in the beginning, and for many 
 years thereafter, the Navajo fabrics were made only in such sizes 
 as could be used for a scrape, or as a covering while sleeping. As 
 the demand for them increased, smaller, or rug sizes, were made; 
 and now, so far as relates to these two kinds, the latter are pro 
 duced in much greater numbers, and are used almost entirely for 
 the purposes of rugs. It would seem proper, therefore, to call the 
 smaller sizes "rugs" ; but as the term "blanket" appears to be fas 
 tened upon them by common consent, it is probably better and 
 perhaps more convenient to use "blanket" as a general term for 
 all the Navajo products, rather than to classify them under dis 
 tinctive names. 
 
 The earliest reference to Navajo blankets, so far as I have 
 been able to learn, written by any of our own people, is in Bur- 
 dett s "Life of Kit Carson." In dealing with some events of the 
 year 1840, he says : 
 
 "Carson now organized a party of seven, and proceeded to a 
 trading post called Brown s Hole, where he joined a company of 
 
THE BLANKET. 95 
 
 traders to go to the Navajoe Indians. He found this tribe more 
 assimilated to the white man than any Indians he had yet seen, 
 having many fine horses and large flocks of sheep and cattle. They 
 also possessed the art of weaving, and their blankets were in great 
 demand through Mexico, bringing high prices, on account of their 
 great beauty, being woven in flowers with much taste. They were 
 evidently a remnant of the Aztec race." 
 
 In his "Notes of a Military Reconnoissance," Major Emory, 
 referring to his visit to Santo Domingo, New Mexico, in Septem 
 ber, 1846, says : 
 
 "We were shown into his reverence s parlor, tapestried with 
 curtains stamped with the likenesses of the Presidents of the 
 United States up to this time. The cushions were of spotless damask 
 and the couch covered with a white Navajo blanket worked in 
 richly colored flowers." 
 
 It is likely that the "flowers" referred to by these writers had 
 been embroidered on a white Navajo blanket by Mexican women. 
 
 In November, 1846, Emory encountered some Indians whom 
 he thought were "Pimos Apaches," but as they were in a district 
 then included in the Navajo country, and were engaged in spinning 
 and weaving, probably they were Navajos. Of their methods of 
 spinning and of their loom he says : 
 
 "A woman was seated on the ground under the shade of a ^ 
 cottonwood. Her left leg was tucked under her and her foot 
 turned sole upward; between her big toe and the next, was a 
 spindle about eighteen inches long, with a single fly of four or six 
 inches. Ever and anon she gave it a twist in a dexterous manner, 
 and at its end was drawn a coarse cotton thread. This was their 
 spinning jenny. Led on by this primitive display, I asked for their 
 loom by pointing to the thread and then to the blanket girded about 
 the woman s loins. A fellow stretched in the dust, sunning him 
 self, rose leisurely and untied a bundle which I had supposed to be 
 a bow and arrow. This little package, with four stakes in the 
 
96 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 ground, was the loom. He stretched his cloth and commenced the 
 process of weaving." 
 
 It is almost certain that Emory was mistaken in saying that 
 the material being spun was cotton. As we have no record that 
 the Navajos ever grew cotton, it is more than probable that these 
 people were using wool, for there was then, as now, a Navajo flock 
 in every valley. But this does not detract from the interest attached 
 to this early observation of Navajo spinning and weaving. / x 
 
 Few, if any, who read this little volume will care to engage 
 in weaving blankets as the Navajo women make them. But if one 
 desires to engage in the work, an educational sojourn among the 
 Navajos is necessary, and therefore I shall make no attempt to de 
 scribe the process in detail, such as would enable a beginner to set 
 up in the business. Many months of patient study and practice 
 would be required before the first and simplest step, that of spin 
 ning, could be mastered; and then would come the coloring, and 
 the slow, tedious work of weaving. I refer now only to the blan 
 kets made from the wool of the native sheep, which is sheared, 
 spun, colored and woven by the Navajo women. Simple as it may 
 seem at first consideration, the process as a whole is really intricate 
 and puzzling; and if we measure successful results, only, we can 
 hardly realize how much toil, physical suffering, and patient, pains 
 taking work is involved in producing the thousands of these blankets 
 that are being made annually. 
 
 The sheep are not washed before shearing, as is the practice 
 with white people, and so there is no sheep-washing holiday among 
 the Navajos. In late years they have used the white man s sheep- 
 shears, obtained from the traders, to remove the fleece; but before 
 these were procured, they pulled the wool from the sheep, or, by 
 using a dull knife, party cut and partly pulled the wool away. The 
 fleece is first tossed and shaken to remove the sand, then thrown 
 over a rope or bush, and the burrs and other foreign material care- 
 
THE BLANKET. 97 
 
 fully picked out. The next process is washing, which is thoroughly 
 done, the wool coming out clean and white. 
 
 At this juncture it may be said that that abnormal and much 
 maligned creature, the "black sheep," is common in Navajo flocks 
 and is looked upon with favor. Its wool is usually of a rusty black, 
 but from some it is of a glossy, jet black; and this is highly valued 
 on account of the saving of the labor of dyeing, and for its positive 
 and enduring color. 
 
 When the wool is thoroughly washed it is spread upon moun 
 tain sage or greasewood shrubs to dry, and the next process is to 
 prepare it for the cards. For a long time the Navajos have been 
 able to procure from the traders the old-fashioned wire-toothed 
 cards, such as were used by our grandmothers before the invention 
 of the carding machine, and by which the wool was carded into rolls 
 for spinning. A small handful of wool is made into an oblong form 
 and then placed between the cards and rolled back and forth until a 
 long, loose roll of wool is the result. 
 
 The manner of using the cards is shown in Figure 17, which 
 is from one of Professor George H. Pepper s photographs, procured 
 for the American Museum of Natural History by the Hyde explor 
 ing expedition. 
 
 The Navajos have no spinning wheels, though they are abund 
 antly able to purchase them; and therefore their spinning is a slow 
 process. For this part of their work they refuse all innovations, 
 preferring to adhere to the methods that have come down to them 
 through 200 years. Spinning the yarn is done with a simple dis 
 taff, which is a slender rod, about thirty inches in length and five- 
 eighths of an inch in diameter, tapered to a spindle point at each 
 end. It is usually made of a branch of the pinon, a dwarfish tree 
 growing in the southern part of the Rocky Mountain region, the 
 wood of which, when well seasoned, is as hard as oak and takes a 
 smooth finish. A circular piece of wood, one inch in thickness and 
 four inches in diameter, with a hole in the center, is slipped upon 
 
98 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 the rod and fastened about twenty inches from the spindle end 
 proper. This is all there is to the Navajo spinning appliance with 
 which so much is accomplished; but by long practice they become 
 very skillful in twirling it and drawing out the thread at the same 
 time. When the thread is drawn out a sufficient length, the motion 
 is reversed and the thread wound upon the spindle, just as our 
 grandmothers used to reverse the wheel for the same purpose. 
 The manner of spinning, and the results of the first process, are 
 shown in Figure 18, which is also from a photograph procured 
 by the Hyde expedition for the American Museum of Natural 
 History. 
 
 The yarn produced by the first spinning is too coarse and too 
 loosely twisted to be of any use in weaving, and therefore it is 
 unwound from the spindle and spun again, and will then answer 
 for the coarse woolly weave we sometimes see. But a third spin 
 ning must be done before the yarn is in anything like fit condition 
 to work into a fine blanket; and for extra fine blankets, or for warp, 
 a fourth, and sometimes a fifth, spinning is required. From this 
 the reader may form some idea of the amount of work that must be 
 done by the Navajo slave of the blanket. When the yarn is finally 
 spun it is washed again, as the Navajos understand as well as the 
 whites that it will take color and work better if entirely free from 
 dirt and from the natural grease of the wool. 
 
 In getting ready for the work of weaving, the first step, after 
 preparing the yarn, is to construct the warp frame. This is made 
 a little larger than the blanket to be woven, and is of slender sticks 
 lashed together at the corners. It is laid upon the ground, and 
 the warp is wound upon it from top to bottom, the threads crossing 
 in the center; and it is then ready to set in the frame. For this 
 two posts are planted upright in the ground, and cross-beams are 
 lashed to them near the top and the bottom. At the top a mov- 
 abel pole is held horizontally to the upper frame timber by a rope 
 arranged spirally, so that by tightening or loosening the rope, the 
 
THE BLANKET. 101 
 
 pole can be readily raised or lowered. The upper bar of the warp 
 frame is fastened to this pole by loops of rope, and all is arranged 
 so that in starting weaving the upper end of the warp frame is 
 about twelve inches below the top of the main frame. The lower 
 end of the warp frame is now fastened to the lower bar of the 
 main frame, the warp being thus drawn taut. The loom proper is 
 now complete, the warp is in place, and everything is ready for the 
 beginning of weaving. 
 
 A stick wound with yarn takes the place of what our weavers 
 call a heald. Twine is wound around it, taking in every alternate 
 thread of warp, and when the heald is drawn forward it brings 
 one-half of the warp threads with it, thus opening the warp for 
 the more ready placing of the woof. They use no shuttle; the yarns 
 of different colors being wound in balls, and these are passed back 
 and forth between the warp threads in the same manner as the 
 ordinary shuttle, excepting that they cannot be thrown, but must 
 be slowly worked along by hand. If the reader will suspend a 
 blanket of moderately intricate pattern, with the warp running up 
 and down, and count across it the different colors and shades, and 
 the repetitions of each, the number of the many little balls of yarn 
 that were hanging on the face of the blanket while it was being 
 woven will be known. The Navajo woman carries a color along ~^ 
 until the pattern demands a change, when the first ball is dropped, 
 after having made a loop of the yarn to prevent its unwinding, 
 and the next color is taken up. This thread is drawn around the 
 thread of the first color to preserve continuity, and thus the process 
 goes on, back and forth, a single thread at a time passed in and out 
 through the warp, the woof being laid loosely to prevent the weave 
 from drawing in at the sides. As the work progresses, the yarn 
 is beaten down in the warp by using a thin, hard stick as a batten, 
 and the firmness of the weaving depends largely upon the use of 
 the batten ; the hard, almost waterproof, specimens indicating the 
 conscientious application of this implement. This manner of weav- 
 
102 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 ing results in a single-ply fabric; the pattern being the same on 
 both sides. Figure 19 is a picture of a Navajo weaver at her 
 work, and was made from a photograph by Charles Goodman, 
 of Bluff, Utah. 
 
 Sometimes the main frame of the loom is dispensed with, 
 and the trunks of a pair of standing small trees are utilized in its 
 stead. But this is of most primitive form, and lacks many of the 
 features of an approved Navajo loom, though it serves to illus 
 trate the simplicity of construction that may be made to answer 
 the purpose. 
 
 While weaving, the squaw sits on the ground and weaves 
 from the bottom upward. When the work has progressed so far 
 that she cannot reach it easily, the rope on the upper beam is loos 
 ened, as is also the top bar of the warp frame, permitting the lat 
 ter to slide down on the frame sides to the proper position. It 
 is now fastened again, the warp drawn taut and the finished por 
 tion of the blanket sewn tightly to the lower beam of the main 
 frame. 
 
 The reader may have often noticed the marks of this sew 
 ing, for it is done so tightly, and the blanket is held so firmly in 
 position while being woven, that they remain for years, and fre 
 quently until the blanket is worn out. 
 
 Weaving is carried on wherever the family happens to be, 
 and in caring for their sheep they are on the move a great deal of 
 the time, seldom remaining more than four or five days in a place. 
 When they are moving there is often seen on a single horse, a 
 mother with two or three children, a pack of wool and yarn, and 
 a complete loom.^ This scene is shown in the beautiful engrav 
 ing used as the frontispiece to this volume, and made from a 
 photograph by Mr. Matteson, which he has named "Homeward 
 Bound." 
 
 When they stop the first thing to be done is to clear away a 
 place for the loom and set it up. Sometimes in moving the woman 
 
I I If ib. 
 
 PLATE VI An old specimen bearing the Head Chiefs cm 
 of the period of 1865. 
 
THE BLANKET. 103 
 
 will forget the idea of pattern she had had in mind for an unfin 
 ished blanket, and the result is an irregular weave. In other in 
 stances she may lose some of her yarns on the journey, and there 
 fore must finish the blanket as best she can with the colors she 
 has left. Such circumstances account for the irregularities we 
 find in some really good blankets, especially among the older j 
 ones. 
 
 In considering the colors used I shall first refer to the period 
 when many of the dyes were made by the Navajos themselves. 
 Their first idea of high color came from the introduction of 
 bayeta, a material, of which so much is and has been said and 
 that is not now obtainable in the original form. It was entirely 
 different from the so-called "squaw-cloth," samples of which are 
 often shown as bayeta. Squaw-cloth is a coarse woolen stuff in 
 many colors, and an attempt to ravel it and preserve the yarn in 
 anything like a condition in which to be retwisted or respun, will 
 demonstrate the fallacy of calling it bayeta, and of asserting^ that 
 that material was ever used in making Navajo blankets. ^_The 
 genuine bayeta was entirely of wool, dyed with cochineal, and 
 presented the various shades of red natural to that dye. 
 
 Cochineal, it is true, is a product of Mexico, but it must be 
 remembered that the Spaniards had been in Mexico more than 
 one hundred years before the Navajos ever possessed sheep, and 
 even if Mexico was the only country producing cochineal there 
 was plenty of opportunity to have introduced it into Europe. As 
 it is, however, also produced in Java and in Algiers, the question 
 sometimes raised, that, as cochineal was a product of Mexico, 
 the bayeta brought from England could not have been dyed with 
 it, is set at rest. 
 
 Cochineal produces both a brilliant scarlet and a crimson, 
 according to the manner of treatment. A fact of interest in con 
 nection with this color is that a fabric dyed with it may be changed 
 to an orange red by acids, and to violet by alkalis. This accounts 
 
104 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 for some peculiar colors in old weaves which can be accounted for 
 in no other way. 
 
 The warp and woof strands of the old bayeta were of equal 
 size, and so well spun that when raveled they were strong enough 
 for weaving. In the old blankets of fine texture we find evi 
 dence that in many instances the threads have been respun to re 
 duce their size, and in the case of heavier weave, the threads have 
 been doubled and twisted. This readily explains the lack of uni 
 formity we find in the weight of genuine old bayetas. 
 
 Bayeta was originally taken from Manchester, England, to 
 Spain. From there it was sent to traders in New Spain, or Mex 
 ico, and by them bartered or sold to the Indian traders who had 
 access to the Navajo country, where it was at first used only spar 
 ingly. It was expensive, and the labor required to ravel it, and the 
 great care and skill required to handle it properly, led the Nava- 
 jos to make only narrow stripes of bayeta in blankets of their 
 earlier weaving. 
 
 Let us not confound the true bayeta with the modern squaw- 
 cloth. The latter is now used by the squaws for dress skirts and 
 by the bucks for leggings, and head-dresses and much beadwork 
 made nowadays have the same cloth for a basis. 
 
 I have heard people talk about blue, green and yellow bayeta. 
 but I have never seen a sample ; neither have I been offered a blan 
 ket as bayeta in which these colors appear to the exclusion of the 
 red. It is, however, a rule when showing a blanket in which the 
 stripes or figures are of bayeta, to call it a bayeta blanket; the 
 fabric taking its name from this precious bit of woof, no matter 
 how small. The other colors may be good or bad ; but that makes 
 no difference. The blanket is a bayeta, as generally accepted. 
 The reader may be quite sure, however, that if a blanket was made 
 in the bayeta period, the painstaking skill required to treat the 
 material was reflected in the spinning, coloring and weaving of 
 
THE BLANKET. 105 
 
 the fabric; and if worthy to be called bayeta, it is apt to be a pretty 
 good blanket all through. 
 
 The accompanying colored plates are reproductions, in de 
 sign and color, of Navajo blankets in my collection, which at the 
 present time numbers about seventy-five examples that have been 
 carefully selected during the last twenty years. 
 
 Plate I shows one-half of a Navajo "squaw-dress," which 
 belongs to the period between 1840 and 1860. It is a perfect 
 specimen of bayeta and natural black wool, but the only symbols 
 are those of mountains, in two forms. In size it is thirty-one by 
 forty-one inches. 
 
 Plate II represents a very old example of Navajo work in 
 "pink bayeta," native wool and native dyes. Its symbols are 
 those of mountains, as indicated by the steps in the squares, and 
 of lightning, the latter appearing in almost perfect designs. Color 
 and form assign to this blanket a date about the year 1850. Its 
 size is twenty-eight by forty-six inches. Of pink bayeta, which 
 enters into the composition of this blanket, some account is given 
 on a succeeding page. 
 
 It appears that in the primitive period of Navajo weaving 
 only white wool was used in making blankets. In some later 
 time the idea of stripes was suggested, and the wool from the 
 black sheep was used to make narrow bands across the blanket. 
 The next change was a mixture of white and black wool, mak 
 ing what we call "sheep s gray," which is found in very old blan 
 kets; and for many years thereafter only white, black, and gray 
 appeared in the productions of Navajo looms. 
 
 It is quite safe to say that nearly all, if not all, Navajo blan 
 kets made prior to the year 1800 were without any colors, proper; 
 that only undyed wool was used. The introduction of bayeta"" 
 about that time, worked a change in the whole blanket scheme 
 of the Navajos. They began to experiment with plants and 
 roots ; and colors, proper, were found. Following the weave by 
 
106 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 periods, as evidenced by age and texture, we find that yellow was 
 the first of their native dyes. A light yellow was produced by 
 steeping the leaves of the peach, and a brighter and more at 
 tractive one was made later from the flower heads of the Bige- 
 lovia Graveolens, a plant with great trusses of bright yellow flow 
 ers, and that grows profusely in the Navajo country. A darker 
 yellow is now made from the root of a plant called by the New 
 Mexicans "rabbit wood"; but I have not been able to find the 
 plant, and do not know what it is. 
 
 When the early traders learned that the Navajos were seek 
 ing colors, they introduced indigo, and probably the dye-stuff 
 known as Brazil wood. The latter was originally a red dye-stuff 
 brought from the far east at a very early period. Later it was 
 found by the Spanish General Cabral in South America, in the 
 year 1500. The eastern product was called Brasil, Bresil and Bra- 
 sile, names probably derived from the broken form in which it was 
 first introduced. The wood was found in South America by the 
 Spaniards, in the territory now known as Brazil, and this South 
 American state was named by them on that account. 
 
 Its natural color is the mahognay red, seen in some very old 
 blankets, and which has been attributed to native dyes. By mixing 
 it with iron a purple is produced, and a good black is made by 
 combining it with acids. With these additions to their list, fancy 
 for designs was stimulated and the idea of symbols began to de 
 velop, but up to about 1820 there had been little attempt at symbol 
 ism in blanket patterns. 
 
 Having the blue and yellow, the Navajos learned to produce 
 a green by combining the two, but there is no evidence that they 
 ever made either a satisfactory blue or green of vegetable dyes 
 alone. Indigo was to be had soon after they began to seek for 
 colors ; but green was rarelv used in old weaves. A dull mahogany 
 red found in many old blankets may be traced to the introduction 
 of Brazil wood. As black became more popular on account of its 
 
THE BLANKET. 107 
 
 symbolic importance they required more and of a deeper shade 
 than was produced by the wool of their black sheep. This they 
 were able to provide by a dye made by combining a decoction of 
 the leaves of the sumac with a native yellow ochre and the gum 
 of the pinon. In the very old weaves we find wHite, black, gray, 
 blue, yellow and green only. 
 
 In collections of old blankets we occasionally find some of 
 the bayeta period with stripes of rose or pink, which, for want of 
 a better name, are called "pink bayetas." The term is correct only 
 so far as it describes a blanket, the woof or warp of which has 
 been raveled from other fabrics. While such blankets were not 
 made from the cochineal-dyed bayeta, it is likely that the same 
 material was used as in weaving bayeta, and that the weaving 
 was very similar ; but the dye was entirely different from cochineal. 
 Close examination reveals the fact that at one time the color was 
 a bright red, and that by long exposure to the sun and wind it 
 faded or toned down to a rose or a pink hue. These blankets are 
 rare, and are all in what we call "old Navajo" patterns or designs ; 
 and were made earlier than 1850. The one shown in Plate II is 
 a good example of a pink bayeta fabric. 
 
 The predominating features in the pattern of Plate III are 
 termed by some good judges the "Aztec Club" design; the barred 
 lines being supposed to represent the war-clubs found in old so- 
 called Aztec tombs. Another interpretation is that they mean a 
 number of lodges, connected by ties of blood relationship; the 
 central figures in white and black symbolizing an union of two 
 families, with lineage running back many generations to two en 
 tirely different tribes. 
 
 This blanket is a curio. In age it antedates the use of com 
 mercial dyes by the Navajos. The single strand yarn of which 
 it is entirely composed shows it to be of Navajo spinning. 
 
 The white and black, the natural colors of the wool ; the yel- 
 
108 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 low, no doubt produced by a decoction of peach leaves and bark ; 
 the pink, some combination of vegetable dyes, not common. 
 
 The size of this specimen is thirty-six by fifty-four inches. 
 
 It must be remembered that bayeta was expensive, and that 
 it was due to this fact that so many very old blankets, that have 
 this shade of red in their composition, have been preserved. In 
 proportion to the number of antiques, the percentage of bayetas is 
 large. They had cost more to produce, and were therefore valued 
 more highly and better cared for. 
 
 There was no good red among the native dyes. If there had 
 been, bayeta would never have been known as an element in a 
 Navajo blanket. A reddish brown was made from the bark and 
 roots of trees and shrubs, but no good red. Bayeta was undoubt 
 edly the stimulus that led them on to other colors, and is without 
 question the one thing more than all others that laid the founda 
 tion for the most beautiful aboriginal fabrics of our country. 
 
 We have now dealt only with the colors used in old blankets. 
 These consisted of the imported bayeta, indigo, and Brazil wood, 
 and the black, yellow, and green native dyes produced by the 
 Navajos. This was in the substantial period, when coloring, 
 spinning and weaving were more conscientiously done. The intro 
 duction of cheap, commercial dyes is an innovation to be deplored, 
 as much in the Navajo land as in Persia. Like the beautiful fab 
 rics of the Orient, our own barbaric weaves have suffered by the 
 introduction of these inferior mineral dyes. We are glad to be 
 lieve, however, that the worst period in this respect has passed, 
 as there is a tendency on the part of traders to induce the Nava 
 jos to return to the old-time methods, and also to insist that 
 when mineral dyes are used they shall be only of the best quali 
 ties. 
 
 Many of the innovation color effects from cheap commercial 
 dyes are pleasing, but most of them are untrustworthy, and should 
 have no place in a Navajo blanket. The reds are the most un- 
 
THE BLANKET. Ill 
 
 reliable; and the purple, maroon, dove color, and bright orange, 
 which are out of place among the colors that make a Navajo 
 blanket a thing of beauty, are also the most disfiguring. If one 
 is in doubt as to the stability of a color, the water test will settle 
 the question. High prices are paid, as a general rule, for Navajo 
 blankets, and buyers are entitled to the assurance of permanent 
 colors. But the reforming influence must come from the pur 
 chaser, and when he insists, the trader will soon see to it that the 
 Navajos use only fast colors. It is in the interest of all, the buyer, 
 the dealer, the Indian trader, and the weavers themselves, that 
 this be brought about as soon as possible. 
 
 The art of weaving is so old that history can tell us nothing 
 of its origin. It was known by the inhabitants of New Mexico 
 centuries before the coming of the Spaniards, and no doubt had 
 "been practiced by the Pueblo Indians long before the advent of 
 the Navajos, who knew nothing of it until many years after they 
 had taken possession of their present country. Their first knowl 
 edge of textile work followed the introduction of sheep, but not 
 until after the Pueblo s insurrection, as we have no evidence what 
 ever that they ever made thread or yarn of cotton or knew any 
 thing about it. Soon after that time the deserters from the Pueb 
 los had become well established among the Navajos. These peo 
 ple had taken with them all the knowledge they possessed of spin 
 ning and weaving, but the Navajos wrre slow to adopt the work, 
 and appear to have made but little progress in the first quarter of 
 the Eighteenth Century. So far as can now be ascertained, they 
 had not become able to produce a rough weaving sufficient for 
 protection from the inclemency of the winter, until about the 
 year 1720. 
 
 Then there was no sentiment, no symbolical figures, 
 no color, nor beauty either in design or weave. The coarse fabric 
 was made only to meet the demand for covering for their bodies. 
 The Navajo squaw hacl not yet developed her artistic sense, and 
 
112 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 it took many long years to accomplish this. But in the evolution 
 of the blanket from a coarse article of necessity to the beauty of 
 barbaric fancy, produced later, her whole nature was changed. 
 She had been slowly growing to be a slave of the blanket, but was 
 working out her destiny without knowing it. Gradually the spirit 
 of her work grew, with color and patterns springing into being- 
 colors and patterns that even astonished her; and she began to 
 weave her whole soul into the meshes of her work. Thus weav 
 ing came to be, with the Navajos, a woman s art entirely. 
 
 The severe plainness of the rough, early fabrics of white, or 
 of white and black things of utility only and in the natural colors 
 of the wool prompts us to ask what influence was at work in 
 the mind of the aboriginal woman that led her up from the level of 
 mere utility to the higher plane of color and pattern. It may be 
 that the Indian s love of high color inspired the first departure, 
 and that later on it was stimulated by a natural artistic instinct. 
 But she has been, to a certain degree, an imitator. 
 
 In many instances the designs on modern and ancient Pueblo 
 pottery have a semblance of color, but the colors are onlv suffi 
 cient to show what might be done in blanket colors. Possibly this 
 suggestion helped, and step by steo the idea grew and took form, 
 and after a century of loving labor the superlative aboriginal prod 
 uct the Navajo blanket was born of a parentage of utility and 
 savage love of things beautiful. The poor woman of the moun 
 tains and plains must weave a blanket to sell, for she must live. 
 This does not detract from her artistic sense, nor prevent her 
 weaving the sad story of her life into the meshes of her work. 
 No one can read that record, and it is probable that she tells it to 
 no one. She lets it go out into the world, hoping, at least, it will 
 fall into the hands of some one who will care for it tenderly, even 
 though they do not know. 
 
 The principal designs are emblematic. However, the weav 
 ers do not feel closely bound to these conventions, but follow their 
 
PLATE VII A valuable old bayeta blanket, 
 made about 1840. 
 
THE BLANKET. 113 
 
 own fancies and conceits to the extent that each fabric holds an 
 individuality. 
 
 The Navajo squaw is not a highly sensitive being. She is 
 not romantic and not keenly alive to a sense of beauty, as is mani 
 fested by her lack of pride in her personal appearance, and the 
 untidy condition of her house. Forlorn, unkempt, a willing 
 drudge for her family, surrounded with nothing to stimulate a 
 fancy for things beautiful, with not even the incentive of ade 
 quate reward to encourage her, there is, in spite of her environ 
 ment, manifest in her work a subtle sense of color value, a cor 
 rect estimate of proper color combinations, and an artistic con 
 ception of design that is wonderful. Barbaric it is, and properly 
 so; even to the limit of gaudiness; but never lacking in perfect 
 harmony of color. 
 
 The Navajo squaw is a child of nature. She follows no pat 
 tern. All the figures are evolved as she works, and as she weaves 
 the story of her life. In symbolical figures she shows the moun 
 tains near which she was born; the river from which the water 
 was taken in which her own and her Indian lover s hands were 
 washed in the ceremony of marriage; the trees, clouds, rain, 
 wind, whirlwind, and the lightning. She portrays the tortuous 
 path man must travel to attain superiority. She knows the sym 
 bols that must appear in some form to adorn the blanket of a 
 chief, the robe of a bride, or the mantle of the dead. The colors, 
 stripes, squares and crosses and zig-zag diamonds are not mean 
 ingless designs. It is to be particularly noted that curves and 
 circles are tabooed. Every design may be reduced to straight 
 lines. The cross in some form is a common figure. 
 
 This is finely illustrated in Plate IV, which represents a 
 curious as well as a rare old blanket. This fabric is composed 
 entirely of bayeta, native wool colored with native dyes, and the 
 sheep-gray mixture of white and black wool. The narrow stripes 
 of dark red indicate use of either Brazil wood, or of a native dye 
 
114 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 the formula of which is now lost. The letter H appearing so 
 prominently is only incidental to forming the numerous simple 
 crosses of red. This blanket is undoubtedly of sacred significance, 
 combining the creative elements of fire and water. It was woven 
 about 1845, an d in size is fifty by seventy-two inches. 
 
 The "swastika" or ansated cross, an evolution from the 
 "Greek cross," so long the emblem of the Aryan people, appears 
 on some very old Navajo blankets. But in thus directing atten 
 tion to it I do not wish to be understood as implying that because 
 the swastika is found on old Navajo blankets its presence is direct 
 evidence that the Navajo is remotely of Asiatic origin. As the 
 swastika appears on pottery found in the cliff ruins, it is possible 
 that the Pueblos inherited it and transferred it to the Navajos. 
 Therefore he who solves the problem of the origin of the Cliff 
 Dwellers may also be able to account for the adoption and use of 
 the swastika by the Navajos. 
 
 The true cross with all arms of equal length was found 
 on vases and cotton fabrics of the Pueblo Indians when the Catho 
 lic Spaniards first visited New Mexico. Whether or not there be 
 any relation between this and the torture cross does not affect 
 the fact that the native people of our Southwest paid, and still 
 pay, homage to the former as a symbol of protection, and also 
 when directly supplicating the Great Spirit. Each of these forms 
 is found on both the old and the new blankets, but the presence of 
 the torture cross may, of course, be readily accounted for by re 
 ferring it to the religious influences introduced by the Spaniards. 
 A cross made of very narrow lines in a blanket is usually inter 
 preted as indicating that an enemy had recently crossed the trail 
 of the weaver s family. 
 
 Each of the various other figures and patterns woven into 
 the Navajo blankets has its special significance. The diamond 
 figure that appears in many pieces of their work distinguishes a 
 page on which their tribal history is written. The wave pattern, 
 
THE BLANKET. 115 
 
 easier described as following the lines of an old-fashioned rail 
 fence, is one of the old symbols, and indicates the importance of 
 water to animal and plant life. Squares remind us of the four 
 quarters of the globe, the four seasons, and the "four winds," as 
 they call the four points of the compass, from which they say the 
 winds blow. These are also indicated by tassels at the corners of 
 the blankets. The creative spirit in which is combined father and 
 mother is shown in the colors red and black : fire, the father, in 
 red; water, the creative mother, in black; and each also refers to 
 the creation of the world as well as to the origin of plant and ani 
 mal life. Black is also shown as the color of the north; and blue 
 as the color of the south. Again, red is the male color, and blue 
 the female color. A straight line with shorter bars dropping from 
 each end, denotes the storm clouds; and the same figure inverted 
 under it, is a mist rising to meet it. Zig-zag lines mean light 
 ning, and a multiplication of these lines by intersecting them is 
 known as the "rattlesnake" pattern, the snake among the Indians 
 of the southwest being closely related to some form of worship. 
 Lines forming steps mean mountains, and rows of little squares 
 refer to Indian villages. The Aztec club pattern was once popu 
 lar, being, as previously remarked, an effort to figure the Aztec 
 war-club found in some of the old ruins. A border of complicated 
 lines, often seen, is the rough road the Indian novitiate must travel 
 before he is competent to sit with the warriors in medicine lodge 
 or around the council fire. Obtuse angles, though rarely found, 
 mean the sky. 
 
 Many of the Navajo blanket symbols evidently originated 
 with Pueblo Indians, as we find similar figures on pottery made 
 by them before the advent of the Navajo blanket. This was due 
 to the influence of the Pueblo Indian recruits; although these 
 figures were not produced in blankets until long after the Navajos 
 began weaving. The figures are not exact copies from Pueblo pot 
 tery, but carry out the general ideas. Moreover, the emblems are 
 
116 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 not placed according to rule, but are varied in position and ar 
 rangement to the extent that no two blankets are exactly alike; a 
 fact that supports the statement that the Navajo squaw does not 
 work from patterns. That she does not is evident from the sup 
 plementing fact that in working she never has before her another 
 blanket from which to copy. 
 
 Pueblo Indian pottery shows many designs that the Navajos 
 do not reproduce. Principal among these are circles and scrolls 
 by which the Pueblos indicate the wind and the whirlwind. The 
 fret is one of their oldest designs. The rectilinear fret, while 
 found on many blankets, is also found on basketry older than the 
 blanket age; but made by people far removed from the Navajos. 
 According to the best information we can get, fret designs indi 
 cate mesas and canons. Inverted pyramids are the whirlwinds 
 as they descend into the canons. Squares connected by lines in 
 dicate a number of families joined by ties of blood relation 
 ship. 
 
 The Navajo blanket is a gem of barbaric weaving. Of a 
 startling combination of bright colors, it would be hideous except 
 for the perfect harmony in the arrangement of the colors. There 
 may be faults of weave, texture, or pattern, but never really a fault 
 in the blending of colors. Blue, or black, and white are effectively 
 used with colors in maintaining this harmony. 
 
 Plate V is from a modern blanket that has had ten years of 
 constant use on the floor as a rug. It was made in 1891 of native 
 wool entirely, the colors being indigo blue, native black and ana- 
 line red. Its emblems are limited to those of mountains and 
 crosses, and its size is thirty-six by sixty inches. This blanket 
 has been used on the porch a portion of the time, exposed to the 
 sun and wind, but has not changed color, except to soften a trifle. 
 It has been washed a number of times in the ordinary way of wash 
 ing flannels, and, as may be noted, the red held its own, and did 
 not run into the white, as would have been the case if a very good 
 
LATE VIII A c ( >ml>in.iri<m of" bay eta and 
 Gcrmantown yarn. 
 
THE BLANKET. 117 
 
 mineral dye had not been used. This is evidence that if the traders 
 would insist upon the Navajos using only the best quality of min 
 eral dyes there would not be much to be feared from them. 
 
 Plate VI is from a fine old specimen bearing the Navajo 
 Head Chief s emblem, of the period of 1865, made of native wool; 
 the colors being- those of indigo and native dyes. These are the 
 true old colors black, blue, red and white. The design is the 
 Navajo Head Chief s insignia of that period intended only for 
 the Chiefs, and, until recently, held sacred to their use. 
 
 The Navajo blanket is barbaric in effects, and that is chiefly 
 why we like it. In perfect accord with itself, it seems to fit in 
 almost any place. The only exception is that it would not be in 
 good taste to use it in elaborately furnished rooms having delicate 
 shades of finishings. The coarser grades make good rugs for the 
 porch, and they can also be used to good advantage for lap robes, 
 camp bedding, in country clubs and country homes, and on yachts. 
 The finer qualities are desirable for portieres, especially for the 
 door leading to the Indian or oriental room, or den. Some are 
 fit to hang on the walls as pictures as examples of the artistic 
 conceptions that have been developed in the minds of untutored 
 native women. As a rug on the stair landing, or on the floor of 
 the hall or bedroom, as a covering for the couch or hall seat, or 
 thrown over the stair railing, it seems at home; and in none of 
 these places will it quarrel with its surroundings. 
 
 Some blankets seventy-five years old, and that have been in 
 constant use, seem almost as good as new. The colors tone down 
 with age like those of an oriental rug, and appear more beautiful 
 because of age. This is one reason why connoisseurs are search 
 ing for old blankets; and another is that the weaves and colors 
 of the old blankets are not reproduced in the new. Unfortunately, 
 it was a custom at one time among the Navajos (but long since 
 discontinued), to burn the belongings of the dead in the funeral 
 ceremonies, and later to bury them with the dead ; and in this 
 
118 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 manner many choice old blankets were destroyed. A large propor 
 tion of the really good old weaves that survive are now in the 
 hands of collectors or dealers. A few may still be found among 
 the Navajos, but most of these are old heirlooms that cannot be 
 purchased at any reasonable price. 
 
 For more than a hundred years the Navajos have been dis 
 posing of their blankets in trade with the Mexicans and with the 
 Pueblo, Ute and Apache Indians. Any one disposed to step be 
 yond the traders and dealers in blankets to obtain rare specimens 
 should not visit the Navajo country, but should go to the rural 
 homes of the New Mexicans, to the community houses of the 
 Pueblos, and to the tepees of the Utes and Apaches in almost in 
 accessible places in the valleys, the canons, and in the mountains, 
 where travel must be afoot or on horseback. It is in these places 
 that the finest old specimens now to be had from hands other than 
 those of the traders, dealers, and collectors may be bought at prices 
 not unreasonable in view of the rather eager demand at present 
 prevailing for them. 
 
 With the exceptions noted above, the blankets to be obtained 
 now directly from the Navajos are of modern weave. Indeed, 
 most of them would be of very recent make perhaps not more 
 than two years old. But I do not mean to imply by this that the 
 only desirable blanket is the old one, or that the modern blanket 
 of good color is at all inferior to the old for ornament or use. 
 The old blankets are sought for by connoisseurs and other people 
 making collections, who are willing to pay well for humoring 
 their fancies. The old blankets are not cheap, but new ones are, 
 if the amount of skill and labor required to produce them be duly 
 considered. New blankets of to-day will be old blankets by and 
 by, and if carefully selected as to weave, patterns and colors, will 
 grow in value each year. My interest in Navajo work was 
 awakened twenty years ago, and at that time I sought only such 
 pieces as pleased my senses of colors and figures, and, as a rule, 
 

 
THE BLANKET. 121 
 
 selected new ones, because the colors were brighter and the pat 
 terns more complicated. It was several years before 1 realized 
 the truth that old and sometimes tattered specimens were in cer 
 tain respects more desirable and really worth more than the new 
 ones, in the light of fancy as well as in intrinsic value. 
 
 However, I have some blankets in my collection that were not 
 old when purchased, between fifteen and twenty years ago, but 
 which were prudently selected, that show signs of toning down in 
 color ; and as the roughness is worn off, they now vie in appearance 
 with the older ones, and would bring in the open market many 
 times their original cost. 
 
 Plate VII shows a valuable old specimen in excellent state 
 of preservation, with colors of indigo blue, bayeta and the dull 
 mahogany red of Brazil wood. It was made about the year 1840 
 and is forty-five by sixty-eight inches in dimensions. 
 
 The beautiful blai ket represented by Plate VIII is a fine ex 
 ample of the combination of bayeta, native wool and "German- 
 town" yarn.. The red is bayeta; the white and black, native wool; 
 and the green and yellow, Germantown. Th s was made about 
 1870, near the close of the bayeta period and in the beginning of 
 the use of commercial yarns among the Navajos. The emblems 
 signify mountain ranges enclosing many lodges protected by 
 water and by the "Lightning Spirit." The blanket measures 
 forty-nine by sixty-one inches. 
 
 Good Navajo blankets, and inferior ones also, will be found 
 in the stocks of dealers in Indian "curios" anywhere in the West. 
 But it should be remembered that no genuine Navajo blanket is 
 altogether bad. All are more or less characteristic, but some are 
 coarse and loosely woven; and these are cheap in proportion to 
 their coarseness. But nearly all late native-wool blankets appear 
 coarse as compared with the old bayeta or modern Germantown 
 fabrics. If the yarn be well spun and the weave close and firm, 
 the native-wool blankets will, if used as rugs, tone down in color, 
 
1! THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 wear smooth with use, and increase in value for many years. As 
 opportunity occurs for careful examination of the stocks carried 
 by dealers, one may gradually learn the distinctive features of 
 modern Navajo weaving. But if one becomes interested in study 
 ing the products of different periods, visits should be made to pri 
 vate collections to understand well the whole scheme of color, de 
 sign or weave. 
 
 Mr. B. G. Wilson, of Albuquerque, N. M., has a collection 
 of quite wide range and which includes many rare specimens. But 
 the finest exhibit within my knowledge, one covering from the 
 earliest period down to the present time, and probably the finest 
 collection in the world, is that of Seligman Brothers, of Santa 
 Fe, N. M. My own collection of about seventy-five pieces has 
 been carefully made and includes nearly the whole extent of Nava 
 jo weaving; a good representation of the development of the art 
 through a period of seventy-five years. 
 
 The Navajo weaves may be divided into four general classes : 
 The very old in natural colors, the bayeta, the native wool with 
 native dyes, and the Germantown. By "native wool" is meant 
 wool taken from the Navajo sheep; by "natural colors," the natu 
 ral black, white and gray of the wool ; the term "bayeta" is applied 
 to blankets in which more or less of this material is shown with 
 out regard to the area of other colors ; by "native dyes" is meant 
 the colors made by the Navajos without outside assistance, and as 
 indigo has always been used with the colors produced by them, it 
 is included among the native dyes to avoid confusion; and by 
 "Germantown," blankets woven of the commercial "Germantown" 
 yarn." 
 
 The old blankets may be, for convenience, divided into the 
 early and the later types with respect to their patterns, though 
 the reader will remember that the first ones made were plain white 
 fabrics. The early-pattern blankets have broad stripes of black 
 and white only the crude, first conception of design. The sec- 
 
1 \ \ Navajo l.cautv, wholly oi 
 
 \\cnt\-ruf years old. 
 
THE BLANKET. 123 
 
 ond, or later, type consists of broad stripes of white, black, and 
 gray; the latter having been made by mixing the two natural col 
 ors of the w r ool, and thus marking the second step toward pattern- 
 design. 
 
 The bayeta blankets may also be separated into two divisions. 
 The first, or older, has narrow stripes of the bayeta red alternated 
 with wider stripes of the natural colors ; stripes constituting the 
 entire pattern effect. In the second, or later, we have the begin 
 ning and the development of complicated designs in which the 
 conception of symbols made its first appearance; and from this 
 beginning has grown the somewhat elaborate system of symbolical 
 figures that is now established as characteristic of Navajo blanket 
 designs. The bayeta went into its decline about 1860, but did not 
 pass entirelv out of use until 1875. 
 
 The native-wool and native-dye blankets originated and de 
 veloped in the same period as that of the bayetas, but outlived 
 them. The native-dye period continued undisturbed until the in 
 troduction of commercial dyes, about 1875, and since then there 
 has been no distinct class period. For some native-wool blankets 
 the native dyes were exclusively used; for many others both the 
 native and the commercial dyes were used; and for still others the 
 commercial dyes provided all the colors employed. There are, 
 also, some blankets made of a combination of native wool and of 
 the ready-dyed Germantown yarns. The native-wool and native- 
 dye blankets are good, both in texture and color, for when the 
 Navajos went through the trouble of making the dyes they valued 
 the yarn sufficiently to prompt them to great care in spinning 
 and weaving it, which accounts for the finer texture of the older 
 weaves. But when they later learned that they could color yarn 
 with but little trouble by using mineral dyes, they became some 
 what careless, both in spinning and weaving, and the result in 
 many instances was a blanket below the standard acceptable to lov 
 ers of barbaric art. 
 
124 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 The fourth, or Germantown, class is one not to be ignored. 
 When introduced the fabric was called the innovation blanket." 
 It is made of so-called Germantown yarn entirely, in all of the 
 fanciful colors sent out by the mills, and if the colors be well se 
 lected, keeping as closely as possible within the lines recognized 
 as those of Navajo colors, these blankets are worth more than 
 passing attention. Their bright colors and superior weave com 
 mend them to all who care for decorative Navajo blankets. They 
 were first made about the year 1875, but only a few had been pro 
 duced prior to 1880. I have one of the older of this class and it 
 has held its colors remarkablv well, toning down sufficiently to 
 add much to its beauty. 
 
 This fine blanket, which measures forty-four by fifty-six inches, 
 is brilliantly represented by Plate IX, and is now of great value 
 on account of its age. It was used on the floor as a rug for six 
 years, and has hung on the wall the remainder of the time, but is 
 now handsomer than when purchased. As a general rule, blankets 
 of this class are fringed at both ends, the fringe being made of the 
 same yarn and colors as appear in the blanket. The service of 
 this blanket has proved the excellence of its weaving and of its 
 Germantown ready-dyed yarns, and also that it is not a mistake 
 to buy a thoroughly good piece of Navajo weaving of German- 
 town yarns when a beautiful pattern in brilliant colors is desired 
 in combination with great durability. 
 
 In Plate X is shown another fine example of Navajo weaving 
 entirely of Germantown yarn. In this the pattern follows closely 
 the lightning design, but the weaver has sacrificed the symbol for 
 harmony of effect, so that in this detail the work is somewhat im 
 perfect ; but the mechanical evenness of the points and spurs shows 
 great skill and care. The points on the sides indicate that in the 
 weaver s family-clan were many lodges. She was long celebrated 
 for her skill, but during the closing years of her life made only 
 
THE BLANKET. 125 
 
 small specimens. This one is only twenty-seven inches square, and 
 was made about 1890. 
 
 V No blanket of Navajo weaving is fringed except the German- 
 town. All others have little tufts or tassels at the corners, and it 
 may often be noticed that old blankets, made half a century before 
 Germantown yarn was introduced, have little tufts of that yarn 
 on the corners. The old tassels having been worn away, the squaw 
 replaced them immediately with such yarn as she had at hand. 
 They are symbolical of the four corners of the world, and she can 
 not permit the symbols to be absent from a blanket with which 
 she has anything to do. 
 
 In selecting blankets, if possession of the better grades only, 
 be desired, one should guard against buying anything having a 
 cotton warp. This was quite popular with the Navajos for a time, 
 beginning about 1880, but the best Indian traders have discouraged 
 the use of it, and the tendency now is to return to woolen warp, 
 in weaving both native-wool and Germantown blankets. Many 
 good-looking blankets yet in the market have this stain upon their 
 lineage, but it can be detected by opening the woof sufficient to 
 expose the warp. It is often the case, however, that wool warp 
 is spun so hard that at first gl; nee it may be mistaken for cotton, 
 and a close examination is needed to determine which is which. 
 Blankets have been offered me as old ones, showing the marks of 
 wear and of age, that might have deceived me only for the tell-tale 
 cotton warp that places them in a later period. 
 
 It should not be assumed that because a blanket is worn full 
 of holes and has a pattern of uncertain red, that it must, of neces- 
 city, be an old bayeta. Many comparatively new ones have seen 
 such hard usage that they are in a sadly dilapidated condition. As 
 a general rule the Navajos are not particular to take good care of 
 an ordinary blanket retained for their own needs, but use it as a 
 saddle blanket, or for protecting grain exposed to the elements, 
 or as a covering for the earthen floors of their hogans. On the 
 
126 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 contrary, and as a rule, the finer ones have been carefully cared 
 for, and, in many instances, laid away and kept for generations 
 without being devoted to any use. This accounts for the perfect 
 conditon in which we find many old specimens. I have one almost 
 solid bayeta that can be traced back to 1848, and which has the 
 appearance of having just come from the loom. We rejoice to 
 find a pedigreed blanket. That is, one that we can trace in owner 
 ship back to the time it was made, and the more distant the period, 
 the more satisfactory is the blanket. There are many such, well 
 authenticated, that can be traced as far back as 1825. I take great 
 pride in one of mine that was brought home by a soldier who had 
 served with Kit Carson in the troublous times of 1863, and kept 
 by his family until two years ago. 
 
 The sizes of Navajo blankets vary from twenty-four by 
 thirty-six inches the common saddle blanket size, to fifty-four by 
 eighty-four inches for scrapes. Intermediate sizes are made for 
 use as rugs, and are so made only because the white man wants 
 to buy them in such sizes. But some very large fabrics are woven, 
 as large as eight by ten feet, in most instances to order, for covering 
 a porch or a hall. They are usually thick, coarse and heavy, and 
 will give good service. An interesting fact connected with these 
 great fabrics is that it is safe to assume that no two are exactly 
 alike. Therefore the possessor of a good and pleasing one has the 
 satisfaction of being quite sure that no one else in the world has one 
 just like it. 
 
 Occasionally when a dealer has found a typical old pattern 
 that he wishes to continue in the market, he sends it out into the 
 Navajo country to have a number made like it. In a measure he 
 succeeds in getting about what he wants, but as the weavers are not 
 accustomed to working from patterns, they make some mistakes. 
 Therefore while the copies as a whole are rather uniform in gen 
 eral appearance, a close comparison always proves that no two are 
 precisely alike. However, this is such a departure from the general 
 
THE BLANKET. 127 
 
 usage, and the dealer so soon tires of seeing- a number of blankets 
 around his place so nearly similar, that the experiment is seldom 
 repeated. 
 
 The Navajo "squaw-dress" is of especial interest. It is made 
 in two pieces, each of which is usually about thirty by forty inches 
 in size. They are sewed together on one side, the other being left 
 open, and the "dress" worn wrapped around the body, with the 
 open side on the right. The upper right-hand corners are fastened 
 together over the right shoulder, which holds the opposite, or 
 closed side, up under the left arm. The center is black, generally 
 the natural black of the wool, but the ends are always woven in 
 red. The typical squaw-dress has only the two colors, red and 
 black, the reds at the ends of the two fabrics being ornamented with 
 symbolical figures to suit the fancy of the weaver. As they do 
 not make many of these now, the majority offered for sale are old 
 ones, the ends of which are very apt to be bayeta. There are, 
 however, a few recent ones to be had, which can be distinguished 
 by the coarser yarn used in the red, and the general appearance 
 of newness. 
 
 The Arizona branch of the Navajos have been sending out 
 within a recent period a well-made and attractive blanket that has 
 been represented to be of woven goat-hair, or of a mixture of goat- 
 hair and wool. I do not know who is responsible for the deception. 
 Possibly it was the dealer who first introduced and sold carpet yarn 
 to the Indians ; for that is what it is. But the blanket should not 
 be condemned on account of the deception, for it is a good one, 
 promising fast colors and great durability; and may be classed in 
 order of merit with the Germantown. 
 
 Woven into certain old and almost priceless Navajo fabrics 
 we find three colors, red, yellow and green. Judging from the 
 peculiarity of texture, and of the shades of colors used, which are 
 unlike anything else we find in Navajo work, these weaves and 
 their colors antedate the bayeta and the yellow and green of the 
 
128 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 native dyes. All the colors are strong, and quite unlike anything 
 found in blankets of later weaving. They are traced to discarded 
 army uniforms the scarlet coat of the infantry, the yellow of the 
 cavalry, and the green of the medical staff. In all countries there 
 are times when army clothing is sold for anything it will bring, 
 and in cases where the colors are such as to be attractive to primi 
 tive people it is purchased by traders for barter. It is quite evident 
 that some of this second-hand clothing was utilized by the Navajos 
 in the same manner as the bayeta was treated by them later- 
 raveled and worked into blankets. The supply available to them 
 apparently was quickly exhausted, and it appears to have been 
 soon followed by the bayeta period and the production of native 
 vegetable dyes. These blankets are probably the oldest in existence 
 in which high colors appear, and are exceedingly rare. In all my 
 research I have seen only two, but have learned of the whereabouts 
 of several others. One of the two that I have seen is valued 
 at $1,000. 
 
 We must consider any blanket woven by the Navajos as a 
 Navajo blanket. To be sure there would seem to be a more correct 
 sentiment associated with one the material of which was sheared 
 from a Navajo sheep, the wool carded, spun and colored, and the 
 fabric woven by a Navajo squaw, than there is in a blanket woven 
 of Germantown or of carpet yarn, by the same squaw. But this 
 is only a matter of sentiment, and leaves each of us free to be gov 
 erned by our different fancies in making selections; and if each 
 pleases himself, the others should rest content. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 THE general purpose of this little 
 volume has been fulfilled in the pre 
 ceding pages so far as I had in view 
 when it was undertaken; which was 
 to give some account of the Navajo 
 people, of their myths, legends, and 
 traditions, of their country, their 
 manners and customs, and especially 
 of their exceedingly interesting prin 
 cipal industry. 
 
 Beyond presenting the substance 
 of their folk-lore concerning their 
 origin, history, and so forth, I have 
 not attempted to deal with it as a sub 
 ject, nor do I intend doing so in 
 these concluding pages. But I ask 
 the reader s indulgence while I refer 
 
 briefly to some curious and perhaps suggestive elements in their 
 stories of the past, and in certain of their present beliefs, customs 
 and practices, the outlines of which have already been related. 
 
 While it is evident that these have been but little affected by 
 what we may call American civilization, it is impossible to de 
 termine to what extent they have been influenced by the somewhat 
 long-existing associations the Navajos have had with the Pueblos 
 and other tribes around them ; and by the less intimate contact with 
 Spaniards and Mexicans. The more potent of these influences 
 probably would have come from that strange people, the Pueblos, 
 of whom there are still a considerable number of decadent tribes 
 
 FIGURE 20 * ~ :f "the young Navajo 
 woman in her bridal array" 
 
130 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 or clans in our southwest country. We have seen that the Navajos 
 derived their knowledge of spinning and weaving from them, and 
 also that many circumstances suggest that it is not altogether im 
 probable that the Pueblos may be far-removed descendants of 
 remnants of the race of Cliff Dwellers, from whom they would 
 have inherited primitive arts, beliefs and customs. Therefore any 
 attempt to deal with Xavajo folk-lore would bring the Pueblos 
 into the discussion. 
 
 The intelligent visitor to the Pueblo country finds it difficult 
 to avoid an impression that the objects and scenes before him have 
 in them something, which he cannot define specifically, that reminds 
 him of those of the Asiatic cradle-land of the human race. The 
 intangible things which artists call "atmosphere," and "local color," 
 are here the atmosphere and local color of western Asia ; and the 
 aspects of a group of pueblo buildings (Figure 21) amid dreary 
 surroundings are strangelv like those presented in pictures of life 
 and places in that old land. 
 
 The ruined buildings and minor relics of the Cliff Dwellers 
 offer much evidence in support of the theory that those people w r ere 
 of Asiatic origin ; and among the Pueblos are found what seem 
 to be links of a broken chain that once connected them with the 
 older people ; and some of which are also present among the 
 Navajos. 
 
 In the weaving done by the Cliff Dwellers, in that by the 
 Pueblos, and that by the Xavajos, there is a similarity in certain 
 respects, but in all there is a suggestion of Asiatic fabrics ; though 
 for the purpose of such a comparison the Pueblo and the Navajo 
 weaving should be considered as one. Figures delineated on the 
 Cliff Dwellers pottery resemble those on ceramic objects made in 
 Asia long ago, and which also appear on some of more recent pro 
 duction there. The rectilinear fret that is present in various modi 
 fied forms on much of their pottery, is the same as that employed 
 by the ancient Greeks in detail ornamentation of their architecture. 
 
CONCLUSION. 131 
 
 This fret-figure, as are others of the designs on the Cliff Dwellers 
 products, is common on Pueblo pottery and in Pueblo weaving; 
 and from that source it is evident that the Navajos, who use it in 
 their blankets, derived it. Moreover, the familiar Greek scrolls 
 and spirals are duplicated in both Cliff Dweller and Pueblo orna 
 mental work. The Swastika, often figured by the Cliff Dwellers on 
 their pottetry, and also by the Pueblos on their pottery and in their 
 weaving, and from the latter borrowed by the Navajos, is too 
 strange an emblem to have had an independent origin among 
 either the Cliff Dwellers or the Pueblos. To the latter, and also to 
 the Navajos, it has practically the same significance it possesses for 
 the Hindu. 
 
 Those of the Cliff Dwellers dwelling-places that were chiseled 
 out of the great bluffs of rock, are significantly like the Rock 
 Temples of India which were formed in the same manner; and 
 their built-up structures are not without similarity to old edifices 
 that survive in Asia and northern Africa. 
 
 As were the Cliff Dwellers, the Pueblos are communal, but 
 their clan-dwellings are not built in recesses in cliffs. They stand 
 in the open, sometimes on top of a small mesa that resembles a 
 truncated isolated hill having precipitous sides. 
 
 Turning now to consideration of the elements in the Navajos 
 folk-lore to which I have referred, we may perhaps find in them a 
 drift or tendency toward implying an Asiatic origin for these people 
 also. But I do not ask attention to them in the spirit of a partisan, 
 nor do I place myself in the attitude of a special pleader for the 
 proposition. 
 
 In the myths, legends, and traditions of all peoples there are 
 absurd tales, contradictory variations, and more or less confusion, 
 which render very uncertain any result of an attempt to reduce 
 them to a consistent form representing probabilities ; and, as the 
 reader has seen, those of the Navajos with relation to their origin 
 
132 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 and to their migration to their present country are not free from 
 such defects. 
 
 The belief that their progenitors came out of the earth, if in 
 tended to account for their "creation," is not inconsistent with our 
 own lingering myth that man was made "of the dust of the ground," 
 and implies for their theory the same Asiatic origin to which we 
 are indebted for ours. The conception of the earth as the mother 
 of all living things appears to be as old as mankind, but it is not 
 clear that the Navajos have this in mind when they use an expres 
 sion equivalent to "our mother land," as they are intruders in the 
 country they now occupy. 
 
 The belief referred to in the foregoing was common to many 
 of the Indian tribes of the western half of North America, though 
 some of them interpreted it as meaning that their ancestors lived 
 within the earth at first, but by their skill and cunning succeeded 
 in making their way out to the surface. 
 
 The two Navajo traditions of their ancestors migration to 
 this continent, one that they came by water, and the other that 
 they crossed a narrow sea beyond the setting sun and landed on 
 the northern shores of this country, may be regarded as one and 
 the same reminiscence. If the story be entitled to serious consider 
 ation it would, of course, suggest that the pioneer Athabascans, 
 from whom the Navajos descended, crossed at Bering s Strait, or 
 by way of the chain of Aleutian Islands. The fact that that family 
 of Indians has so long occupied the western part of British Amer 
 ica lends some support to this theory of their Asiatic origin. 
 
 The myth of the "ship-rock" or "rock-ship" provided by the 
 Great Spirit, and upon which the Navajos were carried high in the 
 air to their present country, yields to no reasonable conception of a 
 source from which it could have arisen, nor of an event which 
 could have served as a basis for it. However it is possible that the 
 ship idea in the story may have been suggested by some vague 
 knowledge of Asiatic legends of the deluge and Noah s ark. 
 
CONCLUSION. 135 
 
 The other tale, in which the Xavajos forefathers are repre 
 sented as having been brought from the north on the back of a 
 swift and obliging great bird, reminds us of some of the adventures 
 of Sinbad as related in the "Arabian Nights" stories, and of fables 
 which tell of small birds riding on the backs of large ones in certain 
 emergencies in ornithological history; "as an eagle stirreth up her 
 nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh 
 them, beareth them on her wings." 
 
 That these intrepid aerial navigators were guided in their 
 migration by a messenger from the sky is nothing new, for there 
 are other legends of primitive peoples having been so favored in 
 their wanderings. Moreover were not Moses and his unruly horde 
 led in the way by heavenly pillars of smoke bv day, and pillars 
 of fire by night? 
 
 While the Navajos have been, within narrow limitations, influ 
 enced by contact with those who professed the Christian religion, 
 their real religious beliefs are bound up in their worship of the 
 heavenly bodies and the powers of Nature. Their adoration of 
 these is consistent with the practices of nearly all primitive races, 
 but in it are some features that would seem to be related to old- 
 time faiths of western Asia and of the Mediterranean region, where 
 Sabaism attained its greatest development and influence. 
 
 One of the conceptions of the Navajos is that of the sun as the 
 Father and the earth as the Mother of all life ; and this is exactly 
 paralleled by an ancient Greek belief. Another, in which the moon 
 takes the place of the earth as the Mother, is the same as that of 
 oriental peoples of antiquity by whom the moon was regarded as 
 the sun s wife. 
 
 The most important duties of the Navajo medicine man are 
 those of a priest of the sun, and in this capacity he is the "Shaman." 
 An ancient Hebrew name for the sun was "Shamesh" or 
 "Shemesh." Whether this consanguinity of terms and their appli- 
 
136 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 cation is significant in connection with what we are considering 
 here I shall leave to the reader for decision. 
 
 The requirement that the door of the permanent winter hogan 
 must face to the east is plainly associated with sun-worship, but 
 for this the Navajo home-builder has many illustrious examples 
 among the ancient temple-builders of the Mediterranean region. 
 The Hebrews of antiquity fronted their tablernacle, shrines, altars, 
 and tents to the east, and the main portal of Solomon s barbarically 
 decorated "house of the Lord" was illuminated by the light of the 
 rising sun. 
 
 The Navajo altar with its motley appendages and curious em 
 bellishments, before which all religious ceremonies are conducted, 
 may represent in some of its details the effects of modern religious 
 influences, but to the Navajo mind it has a general significance 
 and certain associations which would not have been derived from 
 that source, but seem to be connected in a misty way with ancient 
 oriental ideas. 
 
 The close relation of the snake with the Navajos religious 
 beliefs and forms of worship is another factor in the stock of argu 
 ments used by those who attribute a remote Asiatic origin to these 
 people. It is true that the Navajos may have adopted the Pueblos 
 snake superstitions, just as we have taken over and made our own 
 the old Hebrew^ version of the story of Eve s disastrous indiscretion, 
 but they deny that they did so. 
 
 When the young Navajo woman in her bridal array (Figure 
 20) joins the young man not of her choice, but who has made 
 a satisfactory deal with her father for her in the marriage cere 
 mony of eating a cake or loaf, is there in this custom a reminiscence 
 of the ancient Babylonians offerings of bread or cakes to Ishtar, 
 their goddess of the planet Venus the goddess of sexual relations? 
 Among the Babylonians these cakes or loaves were specially pre 
 pared for her, and were called "the bread of Ishtar." 
 
 The use of water in the Navajo marriage ceremony might be 
 
PLATE X Another fine example of Navajo 
 ntirely o* Germantown yarn. 
 
CONCLUSION. 137 
 
 referred to knowledge of the baptismal rite acquired from modern 
 religious practices, were it not known that the custom antedates 
 the Spanish invasion of that region. Sometimes the medicine man 
 pours water on the hands of both the bride and groom; at other 
 times the groom applies the water to the bride s hands ; and at still 
 others they lave their hands together. But "living water" from a 
 spring or running stream must be used. The conceptions upon 
 which all baptismal beliefs are founded are of extremely remote 
 antiquity, and the rite can be traced ages back of the period with 
 which Christian people usually associate its introduction. Possibly 
 the Navajos may have borrowed this custom from the Pueblos, 
 but they claim it as their own from immemorial time, and I have 
 not been able to learn that the present-day Pueblos observe it. 
 
 The color symbolism of the Navajos would also seem to have 
 some connection with oriental peoples, but as they derived their 
 knowledge of spinning and weaving and also the principles of their 
 designs from the Pueblos, it is probable that much, though not all, 
 of their color-symbolism came from the same source. Undoubtedly 
 the Navajos have developed and extended it, but the fact remains 
 nevertheless that oriental astrological influences appear to be present 
 in the associations connected with it. Red and black stand for the 
 creative spirit in which is combined the father and mother ele 
 ments ; red for fire, the creative father ; black for water, the creative 
 mother. Each of these colors correspondingly refers, also, to the 
 creation of the world as well as to the origin of plant and animal 
 life. In other words there is here laid down the absolute true 
 biological proposition that there must be heat and moisture in com 
 bination in the production of living things. Furthermore black 
 is the color of the north, and blue of the south; while red is the 
 male color, and blue the female. It is difficult to believe that sucH 
 conceptions, that have their counterparts in oriental astrology, had 
 an independent origin among the native people of our southwest 
 country. 
 
l. JS THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 The reader may recall a juvenile belief that beneath each end 
 of the rainbow "a pot of gold" might be found buried in the earth. 
 The Navajo in a less worldly, a less selfish, spirit thinks that at 
 each end of the l>ow messages from the Great Deity may be re 
 ceived. Did not Xoah receive a promise-message from his God 
 saying "the waters shall no more become a flood," and is not the 
 rainbow "the token of the covenant?" 
 
 It is evident that the Navajos derived the foundations of their 
 notions about their goddess "Assunnutli" "the woman in the sea," 
 from the Pueblos who, in turn, probably had them from more 
 ancient people, or directly from the Aztecs. The name is plainly 
 an Aztec word, and its association with the woman in the sea would 
 be improbable from a Navajo standpoint, as these people have long 
 lived far inland. Crediting her with having given blue corn to 
 the Navajo men and white corn to their women is probably an idea 
 of their own. The double sexuality attributed to Assunnutli has 
 its parallel in more than one ancient Asiatic belief, and figured in 
 the primitive Hebrew conceptions of Jehovah. The Aztec name 
 for the sun was Nahuiatl, and it has been supposed that Assunnutli 
 was a moon-goddess; the full moon s rising as seen from the coast 
 of Mexico making it appear that the goddess was coming up out 
 of the sea to greet her faithful worshipers. 
 
 The Navajo legend associated with their abstinence from fish 
 as food would also seem to have an Aztec basis, upon which was 
 erected the story about the bodies of enemies killed by pioneer 
 Navajos having turned into fish. In the Aztec legend of the deluge 
 we are told that when the sun Nahuiatl came there had passed 
 away four hundred years, plus two ages, plus seventy-six years. 
 Then all mankind was lost and drowned, and found themselves 
 changed into fish." However when the great freshet was at its 
 height, Ishtar "wailed like a child," and cried, saying "I am the 
 mother who gave birth to men, and, like the race of fishes, they 
 are filling the sea!" 
 
CONCLUSION. 139 
 
 The Navajos veneration for birds, which is almost equivalent 
 to a worship of them, and the belief that they serve as messengers 
 to and from the deities, constitute a form of superstition that pre 
 vailed generally among our Indian tribes. Probably it grew out 
 of the mysterious power of such creatures to rise and move rapidly 
 in the air which, to the untutored mind, afforded no support to 
 anything having weight, and offered no resistance to a falling 
 body, as when one dropped from a tree or over a cliff, which had, 
 no doubt, often been demonstrated in personal experiences. Seeing 
 birds soar high above the earth would naturally lead primitive men 
 to the conclusion that while up there so near to the abode of the 
 gods they would certainly have opportunity to communicate with 
 them, and would surely do so. Possibly Navajo regard for birds 
 may be imperfectly connected with the same myth that has given 
 the descendants of the dove which bore to Noah the "pluckt off" 
 olive branch in her mouth, something like a sacred place in our 
 esteem. Moreover it would not be polite in us to smile at the 
 Navajos bird-superstitions while we attribute to the piratical eagle 
 virtues of which he never dreamt. 
 
 Concerning their regard for the bear as a sacred animal, I 
 have nothing to add on my own account to what has been said in 
 an earlier part of this volume that it is probably due to unhappy 
 consequences of attacking so formidable a beast with the ineffective 
 weapons they possessed in early times. However it has been sug 
 gested to me that if our Navajo friends really are of Asiatic descent, 
 the sacred character they attribute to bears may be in recognition 
 of the service rendered by animals of that species in avenging the 
 insult twice hurled at the prophet Elisha by the little children who 
 came forth out of Bethel apparently for that purpose. But I dis 
 claim any share of responsibility for this theory. 
 
 The Navajos name for their tribe, "Tinnai" or "Tinneh," 
 plainly connects them with the Indians of the northwestern parts 
 of North America, and some people think thev can detect in it an 
 
140 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 Asiatic flavor. However that may be, the word is identified easily 
 with the crude languages spoken by tribes in the northwest, includ 
 ing some in Alaska. Its definition, "the people," is the familiar 
 one that was self-assumed by most of our other western Indians, 
 also, as that of the tribal names thev bore. Egotism and self-ad 
 miration persuaded each general family to believe and proclaim its 
 people as "the people," in the sense of being the great people, greater 
 than any other, the "chosen people" of an appreciative, and perhaps 
 a partial, Great Spirit; and even sub-divisions of families asserted 
 over their brethren a distinction based upon the same exalted theory. 
 In holding to this complacent and perhaps inspiring belief our 
 Indians were not alone among savage or barbarous races of men. 
 
 In various minor customs, beliefs, and practices of the Navajos, 
 in which are included their ceremonies in dedicating a newly-built 
 winter hogan, their refusal to dwell in habitations with which death 
 is associated, their sepulture in tomb-like cists and in caves which 
 is attended by a purpose to preserve the bodies, and their use of 
 fetiches to increase the fecundity of their domestic animals the 
 latter, which is not a custom among most other tribes of Indians, 
 reminding us of Jacob s employment of a fetich to bring forth, 
 "cattle ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted," at the expense of 
 Laban s interest in the flocks there might also seem to be some 
 hazy reminiscences of ancient life in far-eastern lands. 
 
 The conservatism and intelligence of the Navajos may entitle 
 their myths, legends, traditions, and so forth to more consider 
 ation than should be given those of inferior tribes, but even these 
 do not serve as very satisfactory material with which to construct 
 the framework of their history. As heretofore mentioned, their 
 native characteristics, other than those which formerly made them 
 warlike and persistent marauders, have not been greatly changed 
 by their rather exclusive pastoral life. The influences of civili 
 zation that have crept to the borders of their reservation have not 
 seriously disturbed nor spoiled them, and notwithstanding their 
 
CONCLUSION. 143 
 
 present somewhat composite physical character in consequence of a 
 limited amalgamation with neighboring tribes, they have as a people 
 retained to a remarkable degree their old-time mental traits and 
 habits of thought they are still Navajos. 
 
 When they first heard of the white man s railroad train it was 
 hard for them to obtain even a glimmer of comprehension of what 
 it possibly could be. For several years after the roads penetrated 
 the general region in which their reservation is situated, a popular 
 Navajo diversion was to make pilgrimages in parties on horseback 
 tc gaze in wonder, from a presumably safe distance (Figure 22), 
 upon the strange, dragon-like object which rushed along upon two 
 narrow streaks of metal that marked a slender line across the 
 country. 
 
 It is to be deeply regretted that so much of the history of the 
 native races of our country is clouded in obscurity. Indeed, we 
 know very little about it. Study of our Indian people was long 
 neglected, and many opportunities to do so and that probably would 
 have been fruitful, were irretrievably lost. The old Indian life 
 which permitted the tribes to roam at will over vast areas is a thing 
 of the past in the United States, and the changed conditions under 
 which these people are now living are working among most of 
 them corresponding great changes in their modes of life, man 
 ners, customs, beliefs, and in everything else that pertains to them. 
 
 It is only in the broad empire of arid territory in our southwest 
 that we may now find the native tribes, though restrained within 
 definite boundaries, living in much the same manner, observing 
 much the same customs, and following 1 much the same daily routine, 
 that they did long before the reservation system had begun to hedge 
 about and revolutionize Indian life and character. 
 
 It is also in that empire of arid wilderness that exist in pro 
 fusion the ruined great memorials and countless lesser relics of a 
 vanished people who were as strange, if we correctly interpret the 
 testimony of what they left there, as any who have lived upon this 
 
144 THE NAVAJO AND HIS BLANKET. 
 
 earth; and around whose history and fate hangs a mystery as 
 puzzling as any that ever shrouded a part of ancient humanity. The 
 mystery associated with the Cliff people may forever remain un 
 solved, but the region in which they once lived, and the peculiar 
 tribes which abide now in and around it, will long afford abundant 
 material for fascinating research and study to all who are interested 
 in the history of the human race. 
 
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