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A.5141.42-30 - Blanket: Chief Style, Third Phase |
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Catalog Number: A.5141.42-30
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| Object Name/Descriptor |
Blanket: Chief Style, Third Phase |
| Provenience |
North America, USA, Southwest |
| Culture/People/Style |
Navajo (Dine) |
| Period |
c. 1870 - 1875 |
| Date Accessioned |
February, 1942 |
| Material Type(s) |
Cloth - Wool
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| Length (cm) |
153.500 |
| Width (cm) |
185.000 |
| Other Information |
Associated Text from the Native American Hall (1992-2006):
Chief's Style, Third Phase
By 1860, weavers had developed the third phase of patterning, characterized by a central diamond, with half and quarter diamonds along the edges. This seemingly unfinished patterning was created with the wearer in mind. When the blanket was actually worn wrapped around the body and closed in front, the partial diamonds joined together to complete the symmetry.
Blankets for Trade
"Blankets of rare beauty and excellence."
- Josiah Gregg, 1844
In the first half of the 1800s the Navajo became known throughout the Southwest and across the Plains for their boldly patterned weavings. Contact with the Spanish provided Navajo weavers with new yarns and dyes, which they used to develop a series of complex designs expressing their Navajo aesthetic.
Until the mid-1800s, the Navajo lived in mobile family groups, supporting themselves through a mixture of hunting, gathering, herding, farming, trading, and raiding for horses and sheep. In 1863, United States troops rounded up the entire tribe, burned their peach trees and corn fields, and killed their sheep and horses. Families were forced to walk hundreds of miles to Bosque Redondo, near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. They spent the next four years as government prisoners of war. |
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