Traders on the Navajo Reservation in the late 1800s and early 1900s wrote, in their memoirs, how Navajo would come to the trading post, sit down and lean against the wall, never speaking a word, then several hours later, might point to a can of tomatoes, make the purchase, and walk out without further ado.  Not able to read the English words on the canned or packaged products, they would study the labels and make their selection from the pictures on the packaging.

It is from the words they saw on commercial products that rugs of this nature came about.  The letters were nothing more than symbols and a weaver would select a letter or letters she liked and repeat them on her textiles.  This rug has a border composed of nothing but capital letters E, L, A, C, and I, some in the correct arrangement and some backwards. These were designs and their orientation was her decision.

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The Introduction to J. B. Moore's 1903 mail order catalog states "While this Booklet makes no claim of being a pioneer in its field, I think it may justly claim to be the first of its kind published and distributed from the very center of the Navajo Indian Reservation, by an Indian Trader living among and dealing directly with the Indians who make the goods which it illustrates and describes."

Moore was a trader who believed in helping the Navajo in his area of the reservation.  He published catalogs of Navajo rugs, jewelry, baskets and curios for the purpose of generating a market for those crafts among people far removed from the reservation who may never visit it but, hopefully, would purchase their crafts from his catalogs.  His catalogs featured 31 Navajo rug patterns from which to select.  He specified grades of quality, sizes of rugs and patterns which could be specified by the client.  If the client wanted a specific quality, say the best, then he would select the weaver who made the best rugs.  If the client wanted to save money, he selected a weaver of lesser quality output.

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The years before 1864 were the Classic Period (1650-1863) in Navajo weaving.  Navajo women wove textiles that ranged from thick utility blankets (diyugis) to extremely fine wearing blankets. The blanket that eventually became known as the "Chief blanket" was so named because it was a prized item of trade between high-status members of neighboring tribes and early traders. The Navajo during this period were producing some of the finest textiles ever to exist.

This period came to a sudden and traumatic end in 1863 when the United States Government, fed up with Navajo raids, had Kit Carson round up 7000 Navajo and walk them to Bosque Redondo in southern New Mexico where they were held captive for four years. Many died during the long walk and others died during the four years of captivity.  Only one-quarter of them survived, and when they were released, they found their homes, pastures and flocks destroyed, and their homeland reduced to one-fifth its original size.

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J. B. Moore of Crystal Trading Post in New Mexico, and J. Lorenzo Hubbell of Hubbell's Trading Post in Arizona were the two most important traders to the Navajo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  They not only supported Navajo families in the vicinity of their posts, they promoted the weavers and established a market away from the reservation for the rugs from their looms.

J. B. Moore was a resident of Sheridan, Wyoming, when he bought an interest in the trading post at Washington Pass in 1896.  He changed the name to Crystal Trading Post when he took full ownership.  Moore was only at Crystal for 15 years but he set into motion a long-term program to benefit the weavers of his area.  Following in the footsteps of Sears, Roebuck & Co., he published catalogs from which anyone in the continental United States could purchase Navajo rugs without ever setting foot in the state.

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The central elongated diamond would normally be the focal point of this rug but the inner border of lines and blocks superimposed on the white background takes command.  It is so architectural and reminiscent of something from the mind of Frank Lloyd Wright that one must wonder where the Navajo weaver got the idea for the design.  J. B. Moore had departed the trading post in 1911 and this rug dates from circa 1920-1925, so it is not one he published in his catalogs but it could be a take-off from designs in plate VII of his 1903 catalog. If so, the weaver expanded the idea into something very dramatic and of her own creation.  

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Between release of his 1903 catalog and his 1911 catalog, J. B. Moore published loose leaf sheets of Navajo rugs that could be purchased. The first one of the loose leafs was labeled Plate IX and it was an image of a Storm Pattern rug which Moore stated "Special Design and Weave by 'Dug-gau-eth-lun bi Dazhie.'"   When he published his 1911 catalog, he replaced the Storm Pattern rug in the loose leaf sheet with a new design that he labeled Plate XXVIII and it was being made by the same weaver.

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This delightful floor rug was woven from all native wools. It exhibits the qualities of the French Rambouillet wool that was introduced to the Navajo flock in the early twentieth- century. It was totally processed by hand: shearing, cleaning, carding, spinning and dying, by the weaver.

This textile is medium weight and canvas tight, as is typical for a mid-twentieth century rug. The outer border is worked in variegated brown homespun that appears black. The inner field is gray in color and supports two very strong diamond designs that are surrounded by typical Crystal Trading Post hooks executed in white.  Within these diamonds is a water bug element in yellow outlined in black floating on a mustard background.

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J. B. Moore, Trader at Crystal Trading Post in New Mexico from 1900 to 1911 is now famous for introducing to the weavers new patterns of textiles he felt would be saleable to Easterners for use as rugs. His early examples, published in a 1903 catalog, were more similar to classic Navajo textiles and those published in a 1911 catalog were more similar to Persian rugs. 

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RJ. B. Moore offered his mail order clients options of purchasing a rug with color or black and white only, the choice being the décor in which it was going to be used.  It could be the same pattern rug, as in this variant of Plate XXVII which, in the catalog, is shown in brown, black, red and white.  The one pictured in the catalog has a whirling log symbol in the center of the rug and that element was omitted in this rug.  Other variations to the pattern were made as well. 

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Bobby Sekakuku was the nephew of Lawrence Saufkie. He worked in the traditional Hopi overlay style which was developed by his great uncle Paul Saufkie and Fred Kabotie in the 1930s. His work is characterized by extremely fine detail. 

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   Lawrence Saufkie (1935-2011) was the son of Paul Saufkie.  The elder Saufkie, along with Fred Kabotie, developed the Hopi overlay style of jewelry during the 1930s. After World War II, they taught this style to returning veterans at the Hopi Crafts Guild on Second Mesa at Hopi Pueblo. Lawrence Saufkie continued working in the style of his father and went on to influence a new generation of silversmiths. 

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Bobby Sekakuku was the nephew of Lawrence Saufkie. He worked in the traditional Hopi overlay style which was developed by his great uncle Paul Saufkie and Fred Kabotie in the 1930s.

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Black pottery from the northern New Mexico Tewa Pueblos has existed for a thousand or more years but it was brought into the realm of fine art in the 20thcentury.  Pre-20th century black pottery was functional, fired to a harder temper and generally not decorated.  When 20th century potters discovered an interest in black pottery in the 1920s, they began to be more particular about vessel shape, smaller sizes, higher burnish and overall improved appearance.  Various designs were added to enhance the interest of collectors.  One of the popular designs used at Santa Clara Pueblo was the bear paw-frequently used by Sara Fina Tafoya, Margaret Tafoya and family, and Severa Tafoya and family.

This round jar was beautifully fashioned into the shape of a melon and burnished to a brilliant sheen.  Three bear paw impressions were imbedded into the clay on the upper half of the vessel.  Legend has it that a bear can always find water so putting a bear paw on a water jar will insure it will never be empty of water.

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Overlaid on a solid red background that had been atomized with black spray paint, the artist painted the essence of the art piece-that is, he painted the nine human-like figures and the head of a stylized eagle.  I will not attempt to explain in what manner each layer was added because I do not know the answer to that riddle.  There is so much going on in the layering of this painting that one wonders how Tony Da managed to visualize each layer as he was painting it. Of course that is why Tony Da was considered such a major artist.  This painting is dated 1964 at which time Tony was only 24 years old.  He had already mastered the techniques of painting by then.

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This is a traditional Tesuque water jar or olla. True to tradition, the jar was constructed of native clay, slipped with a rag-wiped bentonite slip and decorated with designs typical of the 1880 period.

Tesuque potters, because of their conservative nature, did not stray into the more commercial pottery that their neighboring pueblos fell into; rather, they kept to the traditional shapes and designs used by their predecessors. The red rim and red band near the underbody qualify this jar as a Tesuque Polychrome vessel.

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It has been postulated that the Navajo concha/concho belt had its origin among the Plains Indians, not as a belt, but, rather, as a hair drop.  Plains Indian braves wore silver discs, usually made of German silver, strapped on a piece of rawhide and hung from their hair and down their backs.  It was from these hair drops of round discs that the Navajo got the idea to make conchas of similar shape but to string them on leather and wear them as belts.

The earliest concha belts were made around 1868 after the captured Navajo were allowed to leave Bosque Redondo and return to a portion of their former location.  These first ones were generally made from coin silver, were round and had a diamond-shaped hole cut in the center through which the belt was laced and was visible.  These have been referred to as First Phase Concha Belts and that period lasted until around 1900.  Subsequent designs and shapes followed this first phase.

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It is believed that as Nampeyo began losing her eyesight, she began to make more tactile decorations on her pottery.  According to Kramer, "A photograph taken by Emry Kopta around 1920 is the earliest to show a jar with a corrugated neck; several other corrugated jars can be attributed to this period."  It was about that time that Nampeyo began losing her sight.  She had been treated about 20 years earlier for Trachoma but it began to reoccur in the 1920s and eventually clouded her vision.

Another quotation from Kramer states: "Three decades after visiting the potter during the summer of 1920, Neil M. Judd wrote that 'Nampeyo was already nearly blind.'  Nearly five decades after studying pueblo potters in 1924 and 1925, an elderly Ruth Bunzel stated that Nampeyo had been totally blind at that time."  So, it is generally accepted that Nampeyo's sight began to fail around 1920 and was completely gone by 1925.  She, from experience, was very capable of forming pottery but beginning to lose the ability to paint designs. It was during this time that her daughters Annie and Fannie painted their mom's pottery. 

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Popovi Da displayed special skills in producing beautiful, balanced, geometrical and symbolic designs.  He had the delicate touch of a fine artist, whether in paintings or pottery.  His name is synonymous with artistic genius, a trait he inherited from his famous parents.  Popovi was baptized Antonio José Martinez but officially changed his name to Popovi Da, his Tewa name, in 1948.  He attended San Ildefonso Day School and the Santa Fe Indian School, where he studied under the tutelage of Dorothy Dunn and Geronima Cruz Montoya. 

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The potters at Zia Pueblo have long been recognized as the best potters in the region. Their sturdy, beautifully decorated pots and bowls have been in demand for hundreds of years. The discovery of Zia pottery in abandoned Jemez sites suggests that Zia potters were trading their wares to their neighbors before the Spanish arrived.

By the late 1800s, Zia women were exchanging pottery with the nearby traders for food, and other goods or money. After the influenza epidemic in the early 20th century, there were less than 200 people living at the pueblo. Some say the ability of Zia women to make fine pots for trade made it possible for the pueblo to survive the hard times.

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Today, we routinely accept painted pueblo pottery as the standard style that has existed forever, but, according to Dr. J. J. Brody, painted pottery only appeared about 1500 years ago.  Before that time, all pottery was unpainted and totally utilitarian.  Brody further states that Kewa and Cochiti painted wares more resemble eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Tewa pottery more so than that of other Keresan-speaking pueblos (Santa Ana, Zia, Laguna and Acoma), of which these two belong.  

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