Navajo Textiles: The Crane Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

NAVAJO TEXTILES

Laurie D. Webster

Louise I. Stiver

D. Y. Begay

Lynda Teller Pete

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANN LANE HEDLUND

NAVAJO TEXTILES

THE CRANE COLLECTION AT THE DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE

Denver Museum of Nature & Science

University Press of Colorado

© 2017 by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Published by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and University Press of Colorado

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The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University.

∞ This paper meets the requirements of the ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

ISBN: 978-1-60732-672-4 (pbk.)

ISBN: 978-1-60732-673-1 (ebook)

DOI: 10.5876/9781607326731

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Webster, Laurie D., 1952– author. | Stiver, Louise, author. | Begay, D. Y., 1953– author. | Teller Pete, Lynda, author.

Title: Navajo textiles : the Crane Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science / by Laurie D. Webster, Louise I. Stiver, D.Y. Begay, and Lynda Teller Pete ; with an introduction by Ann Lane Hedlund.

Description: Boulder : University Press of Colorado, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017003581| ISBN 9781607326724 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781607326731 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Navajo textile fabrics—History. | Navajo textile fabrics—Private collections—Colorado—Denver. | Crane American Indian Collection. | Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Classification: LCC E99.N3 N35925 2017 | DDC 746.1/408978883—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003581

Contents

List of Figures

List of Plates

Foreword

Stephen E. Nash, Chip Colwell, and Melissa Bechhoefer

Foreword

Joyce Herold

Preface

Laurie Webster, Louise I. Stiver, D. Y. Begay, and Lynda Teller Pete

Acknowledgments

1

Introduction

Consultations, Collaborations, and Curation by Navajo Weavers: A Celebration and History

Ann Lane Hedlund

2

Francis and Mary Crane and the Making of a Navajo Textile Collection

Louise I. Stiver

3

Changing Markets for Navajo Weaving

Laurie D. Webster

4

Crossroads and Navajo Weaving

A Weaver’s Narrative

D. Y. Begay

5

A Weaver’s Path

From Generations of Traditional Artistry to Blending New Innovations

Lynda Teller Pete

Plates and Commentaries

Plate Notes

Appendix: Textile Technical Information

About the Authors

Index

Figures

0.1. Louise Stiver, Lynda Teller Pete, D. Y. Begay, and Laurie Webster discussing two ye’ii rugs from the Crane textile collection, Denver Museum of Nature & Science anthropology workshop, 2014

0.2. Lynda Teller Pete and D. Y. Begay studying and photographing a Wide Ruins weaving by Stella Terry

0.3. Lynda Teller Pete discussing a ye’ii rug with D. Y. Begay and Laurie Webster

1.1. Dr. Joe Ben Wheat and D. Y. Begay examining a Navajo serape at the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation, New York, May 1990

1.2. Co-curators examining Navajo blankets in preparation for the Hanoolchaadí exhibition, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, 1994

1.3. Weavers participating in the Learn about Weaving tent, Southwest Indian Arts Fair, Arizona State Museum, Tucson, 2003

1.4. Weavers attending reception for Contemporary Navajo Weaving, Denver Art Museum, 1992

1.5. Participants in the Navajo Weaving since the Sixties conference, Heard Museum, Phoenix, 1994

1.6. Mary Brown demonstrating weaving to a crowd, National Museum of the American Indian, New York, 1996

1.7. Ellen Smith at her loom, Wide Ruins, Arizona, June 1990

2.1. Francis and Mary Crane with nine dogs on board a ship, 1936

2.2. Modified second-phase chief rug, ca. 1900–1920, originally owned by Mary Crane’s maternal grandfather, Francis Olney Winslow

2.3. Teec Nos Pos rug, ca. 1930–40, collected by Walter S. Crane during the 1930s and inherited by Francis Crane

2.4. Fourth-phase chief rug, ca. 1920–40, collected by Walter S. Crane and inherited by Francis Crane’s sister, Dorothy Crane Jenney

2.5. Ethel and George Smith with their collection at the Smith Museum in Clingan’s Junction, Fresno, California

2.6. Three pages from Mary Crane’s 1954 journal, which incorporated daily accounts of excursions, establishments, purchases, and observations

2.7. Page from Mary Crane’s journal entry listing several weavings purchased from Kohlberg’s that were formerly owned by Norbert Knoch and Earl Morris

2.8. Textile exhibit case at the Southeast Museum of the North American Indian in Marathon, Florida

2.9. Carolyn Begay in front of her Klagetoh rug woven at the Gallup Indian Trading Company during the summer of 1964

3.1. Francisco Areso, cacique of Cochiti Pueblo, wearing a Navajo serape, 1879

3.2. Southern Ute sub-chief Dick Charlie and family in front of tepee at the Ute Indian camp, Shan Kive festival, Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1911

3.3. Brulé Sioux chief Spotted Tail with his wife and daughter, between 1869 and 1878

3.4. Large blanket or rug collected in 1894 by C. H. Lange at Fort Berthold, North Dakota, ca. 1890–94

3.5. Woman’s fancy manta, ca. 1870–80, purchased from Ed Daniels in 1959

3.6. Navajo leaders of the delegation to Washington, DC, with Indian agent W.F.M. Arny and other Euro-Americans, 1874

3.7. Navajo woman and two young men in front of the Navajo agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona, 1873

3.8. Transitional large, soft-banded blanket or rug with alternating T-shaped motifs, ca. 1885–95

3.9. Late example of a large eyedazzler rug, ca. 1890–1910, purchased from Erich Kohlberg in 1959

3.10. Small Germantown eyedazzler saddle throw with applied fringe at corners, ca. 1885–1900, purchased from Erich Kohlberg in 1959

3.11. Early Ganado rug, ca. 1895–1910, purchased from Lorenzo Hubbell Company, Winslow, Arizona, in 1954

3.12. Small rug or saddle blanket with crosses and swastikas, ca. 1895–1910, purchased from Erich Kohlberg in 1959

3.13. Small rug or saddle throw with interlacing trellis design, ca. 1895–1905, purchased from Erich Kohlberg in 1959

3.14. Ye’ii rug with interlacing trellis design, made west of Shiprock, New Mexico, ca. 1915–30, purchased from Erich Kohlberg in 1954

3.15. Pillow top with depiction of Shiprock, New Mexico, ca. 1915, purchased from Erich Kohlberg in 1959

3.16. Klagetoh-style rug by unidentified weaver, ca. 1959, purchased from the Bryce Canyon Lodge Gift Shop in 1959

3.17. Revival-style Moki-stripe rug, ca. 1890–1915, purchased from Ed Daniels in 1959

3.18. Elle of Ganado, Arizona. Fred Harvey Company postcard, ca. 1906

4.1. Tselani (Salina Springs), Arizona, Trading Post, then and now

4.2. Landscape near Tselani, April 2016

4.3. D. Y. Begay studying and photographing a Navajo serape at the Museum of the American Indian, New York, 1990

4.4. D. Y. Begay at her loom, 2016

4.5. D. Y. Begay with sisters Berdine Begay, Berdina Charley, and Sadie Begay at the 2016 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Phoenix

4.6. D. Y. Begay with her first-prize–winning weaving, Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, 2008

4.7. D. Y. Begay with her prize-winning poncho, Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, 2012

4.8. D. Y. Begay preparing a Navajo two-piece dress (biil) for exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, 2013

5.1. Lynda Teller Pete’s maternal grandmother, Susie Tom, and great-grandmother Dineh Sóí Bistie standing in front of their collaborative Two Grey Hills weaving, probably Newcomb Trading Post, ca. 1940s

5.2. Three generations of Teller family weavers at the 1998 Arizona State Museum Southwest Indian Art Fair, Tucson

5.3. Lynda Teller with her first-prize–winning rug in the youth division of the 1971 Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial

5.4. Lynda and Barbara Teller holding an unidentified weaver’s rug at Two Grey Hills Trading Post, ca. 1966

5.5. Sisters Lynda Teller, Barbara Teller Ornelas, and Rosann Teller Lee with their mother, Ruth Teller, at the 1987 Santa Fe Indian Market

5.6. Lynda Teller working on a Two Grey Hills tapestry at the 2005 Arizona State Museum Southwest Indian Art Fair, Tucson

5.7. Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas teaching a Navajo weaving class in Canyon de Chelly, 2015

5.8. Lynda Teller Pete, Barbara Teller Ornelas, and Michael Teller Ornelas at their booth at the 2014 Santa Fe Indian Market

5.9. Michael Teller Ornelas with his small revival tapestry of a woman’s dress and framed miniature tapestries inspired by traditional and contemporary designs, Santa Fe Indian Market, 2014

5.10. Forbidden Love, a diptych by Sierra Teller Ornelas, inspired by Pac-Man figures, 2008

Plates

1. Second-phase chief blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1865

2. Third-phase chief blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1880

3. Third-phase chief blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1865–75

4. Hubbell-revival modified second-phase chief-style rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1890–1910; Hubbell-revival fourth-phase chief-style rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1890–1910

5. Third-phase chief-style rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1890–1920

6. Fourth-phase chief-style blanket or rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1900

7. Woman’s twill-woven fancy manta, unidentified weaver, ca. 1860–75

8. Woman’s modified second-phase wearing blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1880–95

9. Woman’s modified second-phase wearing blanket or rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1890–1905

10. Woman’s modified third-phase wearing blanket or rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1885–1905

11. Woman’s two-piece dress, unidentified weaver, ca. 1875–85

12. Woman’s two-piece dress, unidentified weaver, ca. 1860–70

13. Classic-period serape with small poncho slit or Spider Woman hole, unidentified weaver, ca. 1840–60

14. Late Classic serape, unidentified weaver, ca. 1860–75

15. Late Classic servant blanket with Rio Grande influence, unidentified weaver, ca. 1860–75

16. Late Classic small serape, unidentified weaver, ca. 1860–75

17. Late Classic small serape, unidentified weaver, ca. 1865–75

18. Late Classic small serape, unidentified weaver, ca. 1860–75

19. Late Classic serape, unidentified weaver, ca. 1868–75

20. Late Classic single saddle blanket or throw, unidentified weaver, ca. 1860–75

21. Late Classic–Transitional saddle blanket or throw, unidentified weaver, ca. 1875–85

22. Late Classic–Transitional Moki-stripe blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1880–85

23. Transitional diamond-twill tapestry double saddle blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1880–95 136

24. Transitional banded blanket (diyugi), unidentified weaver, ca. 1885–95

25. Transitional wedge-weave blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1885–1900

26. Modern wedge-weave rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1955 (AC.4958)

27. Transitional slave blanket with Rio Grande influence, unidentified weaver, ca. 1890–1900

28. Transitional banded blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1891

29. Germantown pictorial rug by a weaver named Miranda near Farmington, New Mexico, ca. 1892

30. Germantown eyedazzler rug with diamonds and crosses, unidentified weaver, ca. 1885–1900

31. Germantown eyedazzler rug, unidentified weaver, 1889

32. Germantown eyedazzler rug with pictorial elements, unidentified weaver, ca. 1890–1900

33. Germantown fancy double saddle blanket, unidentified weaver, ca. 1890–1900

34. Germantown saddle blanket or rug with Pullman upholstery design, unidentified weaver, ca. 1885–1900

35. Germantown eyedazzler rug with pictorial elements, unidentified weaver, ca. 1895–1915

36. Outline style, unidentified weaver, ca. 1895–1910

37. Germantown rug with Oriental influence, unidentified weaver, ca. 1895–1905

38. Early Crystal rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1910–20

39. Early Crystal or Two Grey Hills rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1910–25

40. Germantown rug with Early Crystal design, unidentified weaver, ca. 1900–1910

41. Early Crystal or Two Grey Hills rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1915–25

42. Two Grey Hills rug with storm pattern design, unidentified weaver, ca. 1920–35

43. Two Grey Hills rug with modified storm pattern layout, unidentified weaver, ca. 1920–35

44. Two Grey Hills rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1950

45. Teec Nos Pos rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1930–40

46. Klagetoh rug by Carolyn Begay, Gallup, New Mexico area, ca. 1964

47. Early Chinle rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1954

48. Wide Ruins rug by Stella Terry, ca. 1975

49. Yeibichai rug, unidentified weaver, ca. 1920–40

50. Sandpainting rug with whirling log design, unidentified weaver, ca. 1958

51. Pictorial rug with Calumet baking powder can design, unidentified weaver, ca. 1960

52. Pictorial rug with corn plant and bird design by Alice Ray, Lukachukai, Arizona, ca. 1958; pictorial rug with bird design, unidentified weaver, ca. 1960–67

53. Pictorial rug with reservation scene by Mary Etsitty, Lukachukai, Arizona, ca. 1965–67

54. Pictorial rug with cattle by Marie Wilson, ca. 1965–67

55. Storm pattern rug with steers, unidentified weaver, ca. 1963

56. Pictorial rug with eagle and rabbit by Atsuma Blackhorse, ca. 1960–64

57. Pictorial wall hanging with rabbits, hummingbirds, and flowering plants by Irene Kayonnie, Ganado, Arizona, ca. 1975

Foreword

Stephen E. Nash, Chip Colwell, and Melissa Bechhoefer

In late 2007, Nash and Colwell penned an aspiration statement for the Department of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS): We aspire to curate the best understood and most ethically held anthropology collection in North America. The best understood component of this statement emphasizes Nash’s belief that it is unconscionable for museums to maintain uncataloged materials in their collections. The most ethically held component focuses on Colwell’s belief that moral and ethical concerns deserve at least as much attention in curation as do scientific considerations. While aspirations are just that, this statement has guided us well, and we hope it will continue to do so in the coming years.

On February 14, 2014, the DMNS officially opened the Avenir Collections Center. Constructed adjacent to the existing museum at the edge of City Park, the Avenir Collections Center is a new state-of-the-art consolidated work and preservation space for the 4.1 million objects and specimens in the DMNS collection. The opening of the Avenir Collections Center marked a turning point—a point of inflection—in the history of the museum, and it set us on a path to an even more productive future. Prior to the new collections center, the museum’s 50,000-plus anthropological specimens were spread over numerous storage areas, with little elbow room for visitors or researchers. No more could we complain that we didn’t have proper spaces in which to store, process, or research collections, for we now have one of the best facilities in the nation, if not the world. Recognizing this, we needed to find a project that would demonstrate how transformative the Avenir Collections Center really is for the museum’s magnificent objects that celebrate the world’s cultures.

We came together to answer this question: which component of the Anthropology Collection deserves the most immediate attention and will allow us to demonstrate the full potential of the Avenir Collections Center? At the time, Bechhoefer had been at the museum for only a few months, but her answer was unequivocal: the Navajo textile collection. Within a second, Colwell and Nash concurred: the DMNS Navajo textile collection is significant, nearly 400 pieces, and has scarcely been studied or published. It was settled then and there.

Colwell and Nash knew immediately where to turn: Laurie Webster, a preeminent textiles scholar. We called her, told her about the proposed project, and invited her to consider it. Making our offer even more attractive was the fact that we could offer to support the work through an endowment; in addition, the Avenir Collections Center contains a photo studio in which the museum’s photographer, Rick Wicker, could capture the beauty and detail of the pieces.

Webster came back to us with an idea: she and fellow textile specialist Louise Stiver would partner with expert Navajo weavers D. Y. Begay and Lynda Teller Pete to analyze and describe the collection. They would then select the most important pieces and collaboratively write a book with detailed photographs to offer a multi-vocal interpretation of the Navajo weavings. In late 2014, the four specialists came to Denver. Invariably, their process created a wonderful spectacle. One by one, staff unrolled the 130 selected textiles. Few had ever seen many of the weavings—some were so stunning as to leave even the experts momentarily speechless. Then, each scholar began to share her viewpoint. Each perspective enriched the others—weaving together the strands of technique, history, culture, place, and personal experience.

In the meantime, Nash was in the midst of negotiations with the University Press of Colorado for a co-publication agreement; we collectively maintain that the power of the printed page remains pertinent, both as documentation and for its ability to enrapture audiences. When we first presented the project to the press, Nash asked Webster to summarize the DMNS Navajo textiles collection in a sentence. Her answer was priceless: This is the best Navajo textile collection you’ve never heard of.

We are thrilled. This volume represents the best in collaborative anthropological scholarship. It makes accessible a poorly known and poorly understood museum collection. It was funded through endowment distributions, which we have worked hard to build up over the last decade. A substantial donor subvention ensures that the book is available at an affordable price. It is published through a collaborative partnership with an eminent scholarly press. Most important, this project demonstrates how truly transformative the Avenir Collections Center is for the museum. Prior to completion of the facility, we did not have a workspace big enough to allow us to unroll and properly examine a single Navajo textile—much less systematically examine 130 of them in a comprehensive project. As a result, this volume may be read as blueprint for the future of anthropological research at DMNS.

Foreword

Joyce Herold

This book is about a very special collection of southwestern textiles within the Crane American Indian Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. It is also a testimony to the insight and dedication to education of collectors Mary and Francis Crane. Outstanding in the Native American legacy left by the Cranes, Navajo textiles are presented here through images, history, technical analysis, and commentary. The story of each of the seventy-seven Navajo weavings illustrated in this book is told by scholars, curators, and Navajo weavers of great repute.

This study lies at the forefront of holistic publication about a material world that matters—matters a lot—to carriers of heritage. The surpassing beauty, technical excellence, and usefulness of these weavings are shared in the public trust, especially with their Navajo creators. Added to the interweaving of information and interpretation is the backstory about how the collection came to Denver, seminally impacted a vibrant institution, and continues to benefit its publics.

In early October 1968, four moving vans arrived at the Denver Museum of Natural History, now the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, carrying a gift of historic proportions—about 12,000 American Indian artifacts and objects, the entire contents of a small museum in the Florida Keys. Mary W.A. and Francis V. Crane had closed their Southeast Museum of the North American Indian just ten years after its opening because the public educational mission that was uppermost in their purposes for the museum was not being met. The tourists only came when it rained, said Mary Crane.

The Cranes had achieved an astonishing feat of grand amateur collecting during the 1950s by searching in a businesslike manner across the United States and parts of Canada for the makings of an educational museum devoted to Native Americans. In their minds and scattered notes was a checklist of culture areas and tribes of North America, together with representative materials made and used by each group, from everyday tools and equipment to objects of great beauty, ceremonial meaning, and rarity. Documentation and age were valued, but most of all Mary and Francis Crane sought authenticity and quality in a comprehensive collection. To fulfill their late-in-life commitment, the Cranes’ chief criterion for a new home for their collection was the potential public benefit.

The selection of the Denver Museum began with Mary Crane’s dedication to bird watching! In Florida, she hosted a museum ornithology lecturer who later connected the Crane museum with the Denver Museum’s plan to find just such a North American ethnographic collection. Ensuing inspections and negotiations resulted in an ideal match: the internationally respected museum allocated an entire floor in a new wing for the rich resources of the Crane Collection. A new exhibition hall would be designed to engage visitors in Indian life, a subject well loved by Coloradoans and summer tourists. Education would be well served by the museum’s traditions of tours, lectures, and classes. The Cranes also took note of the museum’s fitting location near areas where, just over a century before, Cheyenne and Arapaho people had raised their tepees and where the annual Denver March Powwow hosts pan-tribal drum groups and dancers from across the country (as many as 1,600 Native Americans today).

The coming of the great collection propelled the museum into the new era then sweeping through the American museum world. Museums were acutely aware of the need to serve wider audiences with more accessible exhibits and programs. Collections were more valued not only as objects qua objects but also as interconnected materials and symbols of cultures in flux. Denver Museum trustees took hold of the Crane donation to present Native American cultures in a new light—living within the contexts of many natural environments. To start, a department of anthropology was formed under the leadership of talented exhibit designer and recent anthropologist Arminta Neal and staffed with people (including myself)