And Eagles Sweep Across the Sky: Indian Textiles of the North American West [SOLD]

From the Preface

From the outset, it has been the intention of this publication and accompanying exhibition to define The Baltimore Museum of Art's hitherto unknown and relatively extensive holdings in North American Indian woven artifacts. The Museum's Collection, while including gifts and extended loans of several benefactors, who are gratefully acknowledged, was primarily developed by one woman with a fine sense of prophetic precognition, rare in our time and certainly much more so in her own period of acquisition almost a half century ago. Florence Reese Winslow, whose gifts are noted in the catalogue as Winslow Bequest, knew what the encroachment of white civilization had done to her country's aboriginal art forms. In assembling the hundreds of Indian wrought blankets and baskets, she created a collection that would allow future generations to look upon the native American weaving tradition with greater perspective and a far keener sense of appreciation.

The main thrust of the Baltimore Museum's collection builds toward the southwestern portion of the country, and, thus, tribal crafts in this area are treated more extensively. Other territorial divisions, such as basketry of the Northwest coast and California, whose great profusion of individual tribes is less evident in numerical examples, are discussed in proportion to their representation. The acquisition of Navajo weaving began for Mrs. Winslow during the Rug period in the first decades of the 20th century and continued into the Revival years. For this reason and the fact that she seemed to buy from the same dealers in several locations, the main thrust of her collection lies within that time span and does not include weaving from all periods and areas.

Where lapses are particularly evident, loans of blankets and baskets from museums and private collections have been included. It must be understood that no static geographically or aesthetically characteristic lines of tribal demarcation exist, particularly in view of the nomadic lifestyle of many of these peoples and the varying degress [sic] of intra-tribe or white acculturation. In addition, time periods must be seen as overlapping. This is particularly true in reference to blanket and rug production where the weaver's proximity to a trading post, a well-traveled trail, or a pocket of more sophisticated civilization brought her new ideas and materials far sooner than that experienced by fellow craftsmen in distant or remote regions.

The material is presented within a framework, both historical and aesthetic. The section on basketry presents sketches or vignettes of only the most salient tribal features with no attempt to construct a comprehensive survey. However, as the course of Navajo history is so incontrovertibly meshed with its weaving, affecting, even directing it, a thorough summation of their history, as is pertinent, is discussed prior to their tribal craft. Even though almost all tribes were affected by a series of different conditions-political, geographical, historical or elemental-the two most significant influences upon aboriginal weaving were an environment within which the tribe contended to build a surviving culture, and the fated infiltration of an alien white society which eventually came to alter it.

Some authorities attach symbolic definition to designs, but, for the most part, Indian designs were not invested with representational meaning. Certain ceremonies, however, did call for specifically patterned accoutrement whose decorations remained the same from group to group within the tribe, and certain basic configurations have been given uniform widespread connotations.

Toward the beginning of this project, Helen Pinion Welles was enlisted to expertise [sic] and evaluate the Baltimore Museum's collection which she skillfully accomplished by calling upon her vast knowledge of Indian art forms as well as by utilizing an eye trained to the emerging and enthusiastic acceptance of native American art.

In conclusion, this exhibition and catalogue bring to the reader's attention the natural forces that were so vital in shaping the Indian's unique character. Hundreds of adjectives have been and may be attributed to him. In essence, however, Indian physical and mental stature was built strong and enduring by three powerful allies: great expanses of space and time, and the always present refreshing and rejuvenating buffer of nature in all its forms. Vast, unchecked periods of contemplation made for considered decisions, and enormously expansive stretches of country allowed for analytical inclusion of distant perspectives within tribal traditions. For many Indians, they shaped a spirit of inner calm which exhibited no rush to competitive alliance. Perhaps this is the reason that their native civilization, for a time, lost ground in the strong surge of more contemporary currents. Today, however, there is much heartening reaffirmation and pride in tribal cohesion and the practice of ancient ways.