Stepped & Stacked Pattern Germantown Navajo Textile [R]

After the Navajo internment at Bosque Redondo (1864-1868) the Navajo began to receive, as a part of their annual annuity allotment from the United States Government, plied commercial yarns known colloquially as Germantown, from the section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where they were produced. These plied yarns were first produced in three plies, circa 1863, and production changed over to the four-ply yarns, circa 1875.

After the horror and desolation of Bosque Redondo, little material goods were left to the Navajo. The native flocks were so decimated that the weavers had to turn to these plied commercial yarns, as well as synthetic-dyed American flannel, which were basically the only weaving materials available save for limited homespun wool fleeces. By the 1880s, the best weavers were often working solely with these Germantown yarns.

This wonderful Germantown textile dates to circa 1880s, and is woven entirely in synthetic-dye, four-ply Germantown yarns on commercial cotton warps. The pattern of this design consists of stepped and stacked parallelograms. The dye colors are gold, green, red orange and purple.

The textile is in marvelous condition. The fringe is intact on both ends. It is possible that the purple dye has faded somewhat but the other colors are still very strong and bold.