Nizhoni Ranch News
Newest Addition! 0
Outrageous Jelly Bean 1870's Transitional has made it's way to the Gallery just in time for our Transitional Exhibit!
GHT 2316, Jelly Bean Transitional Blanket, Circa 1870's, 55" x 87"
Antique Jelly Bean Optical Transitional Navajo blanket, beautiful variegation. Prior to regional styles, this weaving was possibly woven in the Red Mesa/Teec Nos Pos area due to highlighting and Mountain Mahogany Root. Hand Carded, hand dyed vibrant colors with a touch of Autumn, woven with Native wool.
- Beth Barth
In Transition - American Indian Transitional Rug Gallery Show 1
September 2019 to TBD...
Time changes life for everyone, and that’s especially true for the Navajo. During the last part of 19th century, trading posts opened up and traditional life for the Navajo began to evolve rapidly; especially when it came to Navajo weavers. It was with the changes to wool, newly available dyes, and the transition from wearing blankets to floor rugs; that gave way to this “transitional” period and thus, Transitional Rugs were born.
History of Transitional Rugs and Blankets
It began in the late 1870s that “transitional” blankets began to overtake the “late classic” blanket. And within a few decades, the Transitional Rug began to copy those elements and share in their colors and designs. Larger and heavier than their counterparts, bordered Transitional Rug weavings began to evolve and the old classic banded-style of wearing blankets were nearly phased out altogether by the early 1900s.
Currently at the Gallery
We have filled the walls with some of our favorite Native American Transitional rugs and blankets. The variety of styles, size and colors make Transitionals really interesting. Below are photos from the gallery and video in case you can't visit us while this exhibit is up. Click on the photo or descriptions for more information on the piece and the pricing.
GHT 2316, Transitional, Jellybean, Circa 1870's, 55" x 87"
GHT 435, Crystal JB Moore, circa 1900, 40" x 74"
GHT 519, Transitional Crystal, circa 1900, 50" x 79"
GHT 598, Transitional Sampler, circa 1890-1910, 67" x 104"
GHT 874, Transitional JB Moore Crystal, circa 1910, 51" x 100",
GHT 1941, Transitional JB Moore Crystal, circa 1910, 50" x 76"
GHT 1950, Transitional, circa 1890's, 63" x 81" - SOLD!
GHT 1983, Transitional Saddle Blanket, circa 1900, 32"
GHT 2008, Transitional Two Grey Hills, circa 1910, 63" x 84"
GHT 2152, Transitional Double Saddle Blanket, circa 1880, 33" x 54"
GHT 2193, Transitional, circa 1910, 50" x 81"
GHT 2206, Transitional Optical, circa 1900's, 46" x 76"
GHT 2209, Transitional, circa 1890, 45" x 85"
GHT 2210, Transitional, circa 1900, 33" x 65"
GHT 2235, Ganado Transitional, circa 1890-1900, 92" x 74
GHT 2253, Transitional, circa 1890-1900, 40" x 64"
GHT 2254, Transitional Saddle Blanket, circa 1900, 34" x 60"
- Beth Barth
Rock Stars at the Ranch! 0
Kevin Gover, Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Robin Demyanovich, Steve and Gail Getzwiller and Anne Marie Gover
Well, rock stars in the museum world that is.
It was an honor having Kevin and Anne Marie Gover visit the gallery. Kevin is the Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. We enjoyed our time together and look forward to future visits!
Exciting times at the NMAI! The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian will establish a National Native American Veterans Memorial to honor the Military Service of Native Americans. Situated on the National Mall, a place that draws nearly 24 million visitors annually, the memorial will honor American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian veterans and symbolize the country’s respect for Native Americans’ service and patriotism. Please visit their website and support the memorial.
- Beth Barth
Another Pleased Customer in Virginia 1
We are so happy to see our weavings in our customers homes. This weaving is part traditional Teec Nos Pos, but it incorporates Bistie curls and Red Mesa highlights. It is just stunning.
Thanks for sharing G!
As you can see our weavings take on a whole new level of beauty when added to a home or office. We believe the old adage "must see to appreciate" was coined by a person who collected a Navajo rug!
How this weavings looked like on our website:
On a customers floor:
We LOVE it!
- Beth Barth
WINNERS! 2019 Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial 0
Each year we submit weavings from our Churro and Contemporary Collections for judging. In the last 40+ years many of our weavers have won ribbons and prize money. We are so happy and proud of our weavers this year. From our entries the weavers brought home 7 Blue Ribbons, 5 Red Ribbons
and
2 Best of Categories! Hurry - these weavings won't last long!
Congrats to all!
Blue Canyon Navajo Rug: Frances Begay : Churro 1595, $ 5,700
Award: Best of Category-Innovative Design & 1st Place
Two Grey Hills Navajo Rug: Elsie Bia : Churro 1588, $ 6,500
Award: Best of Category-Natural design & 1st Place
2nd Phase Navajo Chief Blanket :Jalucie Marianito : Churro 1561, $ 6,500
Award: 1st Place & Special Ribbon
Multi Pattern Navajo Weaving : Kathy Marianito : Churro 1604 :
Award: 1st Place
1st Phase Navajo Chief Blanket : Judy Marianito : Churro 1583, $ 6,000
Award: 1st Place
Teec Nos Pos Navajo Rug: Cara Gorman : Churro 1596, $ 6,500
Award: 1st Place
Teec Nos Pos Navajo Rug : Frances Begay : Churro 1600, $ 2,700
Award: 2nd Place
Ganado Navajo Rug: Elsie Bia : Churro 1592, $ 5,500
Award: 2nd Place
3rd Phase Navajo Chief Blanket : Kathy Marianito : Churro 1551, $ 5,500
Award: 2nd Place
Teec Nos Pos Navajo Rug : Gabrielle Chester : 3382, $ 2,700
Award: 1st Place
Navajo Chief Variant : Ruby Watchman : 3377, $ 1,900
Award: 2nd Place
Yei Be Chei Navajo Weaving : Janice Van Winkle : 3385, $ 3,900
Award: 2nd Place
- Beth Barth
Make Forever Navajo Your Charitable Cause 0
- Beth Barth
From Floor to Loom - Preserving the Navajo Heritage 0
The Navajo Sandpainting Weaving is ranked among the Navajo tribe’s best known and best loved art forms. The original Navajo dry painting is traditionally performed for religious or medicinal purposes; it is a sacred practice. Sandpaintings are used in ceremonies designed to summon supernatural forces, they represent the Navajo’s religious world and are customarily part of ceremonies that will heal and restore a patient that is out of balance.
HASTEEN KLAH
The Navajo Sandpainting Textiles: an art form that owes its existence to Weaver, Artist, and Medicine Man Hasteen Klah (also spelled Hastiin Klah, and Hosteen Klah, 1867-1937). He began his training in the traditionally female craft of weaving with his mother and sister in the 1880s. He first began to learn the Navajo medicine ways – chanting and sandpainting – from his uncle. In learning the Nightway ceremony, Klah worked under the guidance of Laughing Singer and Tall Chanter. While most Navajo singers can master only one or two complete chants, Klah mastered at least eight. Among the ceremonies which he mastered were the Hailway, the Mountainway, the Nightway, the Windway, and the Chiricahua.
Hasteen had seen decades of unending efforts by the US Government and missionaries to transition the Navajo into the mainstream and adopt Christianity. Hasteen felt that the future of Navajo culture and religion was in danger, and yearned to preserve it.
IT BEGINS
In 1911 Hasteen Klah wove a blanket of Yei Be Chei dancers which portrayed sacred masks. Local singers felt that his was sacrilegious and demanded that Klah have a ceremony to expel the evil and that he destroy the weaving. Instead, Klah sent the weaving to Washington and experienced no negative effects.
In 1917 Klah took Franc Newcomb, trader Arthur Newcomb’s wife, to a Nightway ceremony. After the witnessing the ceremony, she became passionate about helping Klah preserve the traditions in as many media as possible. She attempted to draw from memory the designs from the sandpaintings which were used in the ceremony. She was unsuccessful and Klah sketched them for her in pencil. Newcomb then made these into watercolor reproductions and hung them in her bedroom so that the other Navajo would not be offended. After seeing that no punishment occurred, Klah then did an additional 27 paintings for her.
In 1919 Klah began to weave sandpainting rugs which were based on the chants he was qualified to sing. His first sandpainting weaving was a whirling log design from the Nightway ceremony.
Hasteen Klah with one of his Shootingway sandpainting tapestries at the Newcomb’s trading post, Navajo, New Mexico, ca. 1927. Photograph probably by Arthur or Frances Newcomb.
Over the years, Klah worked with a number of non-Indian scholars and allowed them to record his songs, ceremonies, stories, and sandpaintings. His only Navajo student – Beaal Begay – died in 1931 , so much of his knowledge of ceremony was not passed on in the Navajo traditional way. However, Klah and his nieces, Gladys and Irene, wove more than 70 sandpainting weavings between 1919 and 1937, preserving those ceremonial sandpaintings for the future.
One of the Anglos who worked with Klah was Mary Cabot Wheelwright (introduction through the Newcombs) who founded the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art in 1937. She had been permitted to record many of Klah’s songs and erected the museum to preserve his medicine knowledge and his sacred objects.
The museum is now known as the Wheelwright Museum. The Museum displayed many of his drawings and paintings of sand paintings, as well as his sandpainting weavings. The Wheelwright is no longer actively involved in the study of Navajo religion, however it maintains growing, world-renowned collections that document Navajo art and culture from 1850 to the present. It also presents changing exhibitions on traditional and contemporary Navajo and other Native American arts.
Getzwiller Historic Collection: Yei Be Chei : GHT 2215
This sand painting ceremony is protected by a border of arrow fletchings on all sides, Yei Dancers prepare to dance in a healing ceremony. Talking God with all of the feathers on his head wears a deer pelt as a sash and carries a weasel skin. The dancers are all male with the exception of the female with the square head in the center. The male dancers are adorned with fox tails hanging from their skirts. Calling God is seen at the other end with brown feathers on his head. All are wearing collars made of spruce.
This is an exceptional weaving and was featured in our Woven Holy People exhibit. You can see the exhibit guide here.
It is available for purchase, call Beth or Robin for pricing: 520-455-5020.
| Style | Yei / Yei Be Chei |
| Weaver | Unknown Navajo |
| Date | circa 1930s |
| Size | 5′2″ x 3′11″ (1.57M x 19M) |
| Item # | GHT 2215 |
To view all Sand Paintings available for purchase click here
- Beth Barth
You Little Beauty! 0
- Beth Barth
Churro Sheep : Back from the Brink 0
For hundreds of years Churro sheep have been the center of Navajo life, yet the animal was nearly exterminated by outside forces.
Steve started working with Navajo weavers in the early 1970s and in the 1980s. He was very interested in improving the Navajo weaving quality by distributing better wools to some of his better weavers. During this time it was New Zealand Romney and Lincoln wools he would distribute to some of the better weavers in the Wide Ruins and surrounding areas. Many of these works were featured in his book The Fine Art of Navajo Weaving.
In the 1990s the economy was not very good and the natural dyes of the Wide Ruin weavers were copied commercially so the uniqueness of their weavings was compromised in value. At this time, Navajo weavings were missing something. Steve met with an old friend, Ray Dewey, in Santa Fe and they discussed how the quality of Navajo weavings could be improved at this point in time. The answer was the wool and the dyes.
The best weaving wool for the Navajo rugs and blankets is the Churro sheep wool. The historic pieces that have been present since over 100 years ago are clear evidence that the Churro wool is the best and only becomes better with time. This conclusion planted the seed to bring Navajo churro wool back to the loom. There were existing efforts to revive the Churro sheep since it was on the endangered species list, but nothing to improve genetics enough to have a high quality weaving wool. Navajo churro wool was the first weaving wool of the Navajo Nation because of its low lanolin content, long staple and translucent qualities. Bringing the churro sheep back to the Navajo weaver and the wool back to the loom was an important goal for Steve and Gail.
Steve was able to find the source of the Navajo Churro Registry where the genetics were being perfected for a better fleece. The next step was to find dye artists who were willing to dye the wool by hand for what would later be called the 'Navajo Churro Collection'. Though it seems like a simple thing, this took several years to put together. Moving forward with the process, the next step was reaching out to the best weavers on the Navajo reservation who were willing to use the Churro wool. The weavers were thrilled to use the wool, loved the new colors (Indigo, Cochineal and the highest quality dyes from Switzerland). With that, the Navajo Churro Collection was born.
The result of this project is history making in itself. For one thing the Navajo Churro Sheep are no longer on the endangered species list. Some of the very best master weavers of the Navajo nation are able to work on projects in the Navajo Churro Collection that they otherwise would not be able to do. They are given the very best wool which is hand dyed and custom spun ready for them to weave on their loom; the Nizhoni Ranch Gallery supports them through the weaving process even if it takes years for them to complete. A registry is kept of each weaving documenting the weaver, a photo of her, and the weaving. It is very important that in 100 years from now, the weavers will be recognized for their work.
The Navajo Churro Collection Weaving project is playing a part in preserving the Navajo weaving art in the Navajo culture. The Navajo Churro Collection celebrates the Navajo weavers and the art of the loom. The Nizhoni Ranch Gallery exclusively offers these weavings to the world, which represent some of the finest Navajo weavings ever made. Steve and Gail will continue their work and hope that one of the benefits of this project will be for young Navajos to take up this very difficult and beautiful art form, as it is a legacy well worth preserving.
- Beth Barth
Spider Rock : Home of Spider Woman 0
Sacred Spider Rock, Canyon De Chelly, Navajo Nation
Spider Woman and Spider Rock
According to Navajo legend, Spider Woman lives at Spider Rock in Canyon De Chelly. She was first to weave the web of the universe. She taught the Navajo how to weave, how to create beauty in their own life and to spread the "Beauty Way" teaching of balance within the mind, body & soul. On the other hand Spider Woman has a bit of a dark side. But let's start off with the bright.
In the Navajo creation story, the first world was small and pitch black. There were four seas and an island. In the very middle of the island was a single pine tree. Ants, dragonflies, locusts and beetles lived there and made up the Air-Spirit People of the first world.
The second world was known as blue, where life was given to Spider Woman & Spider Man. Only their inner spirits or souls were made. Their physical bodies were made later to contain their spirits when they evolved into future worlds.
In the third world the holy ones advised Spider Woman that she had the capabilities of weaving a map of the universe and the geometrical patterns of the spirit beings in the night sky. At first she did not know what they meant, and was not told how it could be done. Curiosity became her energy and driving force to learn to weave as the holy ones instructed.
On a beautiful day when she was out on the land, exploring and gathering food, she came upon a small young tree. She touched it with her right hand and wrapped her fingers around one of its branches. As she was letting go, a string streamed out the center of her palm and wrapped around the tree branch. She was not quite sure what the string was. At first she shook her hand to release the string, but it would not break free. She thought if she kept wrapping the string around the branch it might let go.
Spider Woman started maneuvering and manipulating the string into various shapes. At this particular moment, she knew this was the weaving the holy people instructed her to do. Immediately she broke the string with her left hand without hesitation. She sat and thought carefully about how to use her new gift. For the rest of the day she sat close to the tree and wrapped the string into various patterns on other branches of the small tree.
The holy ones heard about Spider Woman's new talent and came to visit her. During the visit the holy ones instructed Spider Man to construct a weaving loom and also create the tools used in the various processes of weaving. At this time Spider Woman began to sing the weaving songs, given to her by the holy ones. The songs empower the weavings and the weaving tools.
Dineh (Navajo) of today live in the fourth world, known as the "Glittering World". Young weavers are instructed to find a spider web in the early morning, glistening with sunlight and sparkles. They are told to place the palm of their right hand upon the spider's webbing without destroying or damaging the web. At that moment Spider Woman's gift of weaving enters the young weaver's spirit, where it lives forever.
Spider Woman's dark side. Navajo elders warn young children that Spider Woman is always on the look out for mischievous and disobedient children. When she finds them, she spins them tight with her web and takes them to the top of Spider Rock. There she boils and eats them. Their left over bones melt in the sun which create the white bands at the very top of Spider Rock. Yikes. Kids, be on your best behavior!
Cara Gorman, Master Navajo Weaver, close enough to Spider Rock to see the white bands
Elsie Bia, Master Navajo Weaver, near Spider Rock
Nizhoni Ranch Gallery Master Weavers, near Spider Rock
- Beth Barth
Navajo Textiles Across the Pond 1
One of our favorite clients in the UK decorated a room using Farrow & Ball Paint Company colors and a weaving from the Getzwiller Navajo Churro Collection. He submitted the photo to Farrow and Ball and they published it in one of their color collections! Thanks for sharing Douglas!
- Beth Barth
