Jan . 21 - Feb. 28, 1996
Johnson County CommunityCollege • Galleryof Art Navajo SandpaintingTextiles Sandpainting weavings, however, are not, nor have they been , a part of The Navajo term for sandpainting is Navajo ceremonies. Although sandpaint 'iikiiiih, "place where the gods come and ing textiles are reproductions from the go." Since sandpaintings are employed Navajo ceremonial Chantways (also in ceremonies designed to summon commonly referred to as Chants or supernatural forces, it is impo1tant for Sings), they are not intended to be used the viewer to approach the subject with for sacred purposes. Although fewer the understanding that sandpaintings Chantways are performed today , they represent graphic and sacred renderings can be divided into seven major groups , of the Navajo's religious world. and each of these consists of one or Traditionally, sandpainting is done more subgroups. These subgroups con only as part of a curing, purification or tain from four to 96 sandpaintings, thus blessing ritual. When people are in good making specific identification difficult. health, they are in harmony with their One area of investigation is the whole environment. When they become identification of the accuracy of the Tbe Skies, from the Shooting Chant, woven by ill or "out of harmony, " they may be ceremonial design from specific Mrs. Many Goats, c. 1930, wool , 82" x 77W', treated with one of 60 ceremonies. Chantways reproduced in a woven collection Mr. and Mrs. A. ]. Gates, Scottsdale. Sandpaintings thus serve as an integral sandpainting, that is, the weaver's of these early rugs is unknown. Two part of elaborate Navajo healing or source for the sandpainting textile. For sandpaintings , one in Chaco Canyon blessing ceremonies that are conducted the viewer to fully understand a sand and one in Two Grey Hills, were made for a patient or petitioner. These cere painting tapestry , the source from which in 1904, and several rugs were also monies have a specific spiritual purpose: the weaver re-created the design should made at Newcomb 's Trading Post in to summon the presence of the various be considered. It is the translation of 1903 and again betw een 1906 and 1911. supernatural powers who figure in the ceremonial information to the weaver 's No information is available on these Navajo Creation stories as illustrated by loom that embodies the "cultural ten rugs, but stories persist regarding the sandpaintings. The intended result is a sion" surrounding the production , sale commotion they caused - supposedly balanced, harmonious and healthy and exhibition of sandpainting textiles. resulting in the cessation of production relationship with the Holy People. Tension is first realized in gender of sandpainting tapestries for a number In effect, ceremonial sandpaintings roles. In the Navajo culture, men of years, except for the "great flood of are temporary altars. With the re-creation perform the roles of healer and singer. It so-called yei and yeibichai blankets " of their Creation stories by means of the is the hatathli , or singer, who through (Wyman, 1983: 264). sandpaintings, the Navajo believe that years of study memorizes the complex The yei and yeibichai rugs differ from the specific healings associated with iconography associated with actual sandpainting textiles in that they focus each sto1y will bring relief to the patient. sandpaintings. Traditionally, however , on isolated figures, whereas sandpainting A Medicine Man performs the ritual, women - not men - are the weavers. It weavings are more or less accurate accompanied by prayers and singing , by is unlikely that a female weaver would copies of complete ceremonial sand touching parts of the sandpainting have sufficient knowledge to reproduce paintings. The first documented yei and design and then rubbing the colored sandpaintings successfully from memory. yeibichai rugs also date to the early sand or powder on the body of the As these two professions are clearly 1900s. The yei are a particular category patient. As a result, the altar is destroyed delineated by gender roles, the question of Holy People , as distinguished from as part of the healing process. of how the singer's images are translated the yeibichai , masked-god-impersonator to designs on a weaver 's loom is a sig dancers who appear in such ceremonies nificant one. The answer to this question as the Nightway Chant. The yei and for many Navajo has been perceived as yeibichai rugs do not utilize entire sand a violation against the Holy People . painting images but, like sandpainting Reproduction of sandpaintings has textiles, they do depict Holy People. Yei always been controversial. Even though rugs were popularized by Will Evans, a the development of sandpainting trader at Shiprock, following World War I. weaving parallels early instances of These rugs continue to be produced , sandpainting demonstrations and primarily as tourist novelties, and are scholarly documentation of ceremonies, seldom based on sandpainting designs. weaving of such items was kept secret. However , even the early yei rugs caused The first sandpainting rug was woven dissent because they depicted perma in Chaco Canyon in 1896 at the request nent images of Holy People. of a gentleman on the Wetherill It is important to remember that Expedition (Wheat 1976: 48). In 1897, initially the reproduction of any of these Male and Female Yei with Corn, from the Nightway Richard Wetherill had another rug sacred images was looked upon by most Chant, woven by Gladys Manuelito , c. 1930, wool , woven that remained in the family's Navajo with apprehension and fear. To 11 11 68 x 68 , collection Jay Barron , Nashville, Tenn. possession until at least 1913. The fate the Navajo, a ceremonial sandpainting contains multidimensional power. This power is both visual and conceptua l, metaphorical and literal, aesthet ic and therapeutic (Witherspoon, 1995: 58). For the Navajo, it would seem strange and inappropri ate to view a sandpainting as two-dimensional art because , in its proper place, the sandpainting is the powerful and sacred center of their uni verse. Many stories have been told of terrible consequences - including blind ness and crippling - for offending the Holy People. It is not unu sual, therefore , to hear that a patticular sandpainting weaver has had a healing ceremony. To avoid curses, weavers frequently omit a detail or othetwise modify a design. Fear and apprehension of weav ing a sandpainting were, for a time, allayed by an extraordina1y circumstance when the weaver and tl1e singer were one and the same . Historically, the best-known sandpaintings were not woven by a female , but a male weaver by the name of "Left-handed " or Hosteen Klah. Klah was both a weaver and a Medicine Man. He was known to the Navajos by a term that means transformed. His acceptance in both male and female activities was due to the special status and prestige Mother Earth, Father Sky, possibly from the Mountain Chant or Night Chant, woven by Altnabah , bestowed upon a transformed male. c. 1930, wool , 156" x 156", collection Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff. Photo: Museum of Northern Arizona photo archives , negative numb er £3716/ 2565 Although it is not certain whether Klah was a transvestite , berdache or to collect this much . ... Many qf the family relationships and particularly reli hermaphrodite, his orientation placed Navahos in our valley were critical of this gious beliefs. Even though family and him in a class of "man-woman " which , project as they thought the making of an friends might disagree witl1 a weaver for in Navajo mythology, is thought to pos accurate sandpainting in permanent producing a sandpainting weaving, they sess special powers in the real world. form would bring disaster to the entire would say nothing. As Ann Hedlund Klah and his nieces, Gladys and Irene , tribe. But Kiah was too powerful in recently noted: wove more tl1an 70 sandpainting medicine-man status for them to say any "Throughout the 350-year evolution tapestries between 1919 and 1937.1 thing to him . ... He chanted his prayers of Navajo weaving , the individual's Klah's long-time friend , Mrs. Franc and said that nothing would happen - freedom to make decisions - about color, Johnson Newcomb, recounted the trials nothing did!(Newcomb, 1964: 157) design or any of the myriad aspects of Klah's first sandpainting weaving: Sandpaintings of five Chantways are of making a textile - has remained I asked why he did not weave a rug represented in Klah's and his niece 's central. " with a ceremonial design. He said that weavings , including 49 tapestries from In addition to a strong sense of sacred symbols should not be ... placed Night Chant, 9 from Hail Chant, 10 from individualism , a weaver must be confi on the floor to be walked on all day. I Shooting Chant and 1 each from dent. An extraordinary level of technical assured him that .. . [it]would never be Mountainway and Eagleway Chant. skill and special weaving expertise is used on the floor, but wou ld be hung on When tl1e demand for Klah's sandpaint required to carry out a sandpaint ing the wall of some museum . ... After talk ing weavings exceeded what he could textile. A weaver must be confident of ing it over with his f amity, he decided it produce , he enlisted the aid of his two her ability to weave circles, curves and a would be all right. . .. He had logs nieces , supetvising tl1eir weaving and wide vatiety of animals and figures. The brought from the mountain and built a protecting tl1em by singing over them ability of sandpainting weavers to solve loom that would hold a rug 12 feet (Wyman, 1983: 265). technical problems and accurately trans square. Tben came the problem of find To weave a sandpa inting textile late intricate designs to their weavings ing the right wool. A rug of this size requires a strong sense of autonomy, places them in a special category of would require about 20 pounds of raw self-confidence and physical endurance. weaving excellence. wool, and as the proper background tan The Navajo's respect for autono my is Lastly, the weaver must have the color was only found on the underside of reflected in many facets of Navajo physical endurance to weave a large the brown sheep, it did not seem possible culture, including language structure, tapestry. Reichard, for example, Chant, Bead Chant, Hail Chant, Waterway and Coyoteway. There is no doubt that weaving sand paintings is a cultural anoma ly. In the context of Navajo culture, the reproduc tion of sandpaintings as woven textiles is at odds with the intent of actual sand paintings - thus creating a cultural ten sion. Sandpainting weavings embody this tension through the translation of sanctioned knowledge passed from a Medicine Man to a female weaver. While economics se1ved as an incentive for many woven sandpainting textiles, the marketing of the sacred for secular reasons resulted in a beautiful and esoteric att form which, when viewed as an educationa l device , became a way to preserve the Navajo heritage. Klah's contributions , for exam ple, go beyond the beauty of his mag nificent weavings: he was responsible for helping open Navajo religion to per manent record. The sandpaintings in this exhibition possess integrity, pow er and spirit. Inwardly, they illustrate the avajo's absolute respect for the individual , while outwardly they provide the viewer an image of the Navajo's cosmic universe . - John Gerber curator, Kenn edy Museum of Am erican Art, Corn with Holy People, from the ighrway Chant, woven by Gladys Manuelito, c. 1950, wool , Ohio University, Athens 11 11 69Y2x 67Y2, collection Dana Molded Products, Arlington Heights, Ill.
I Two of Kiah's sister's daughters were married to brothers. obse1ved that the prodigious and prolific another outstanding family of sandpaint The older one, Gladys (Hanesbah) married Sam Manuelito, and Irene (Altnabah) married his younger brother Jim weaver Altnabah had a sandpainting on ing weavers, but one that used primarily Manuelito. Hence, they we re know n as Mrs. Sam and the loom for more than three years, and commercially dyed yarn . This allowed Mrs. Jim . These men we re grandsons of the famous Navajo headman Manuelito (1821-93), who was the son-in-law of it was only half completed. Sandpainting them to spend more time on the weav Narbona, Kiah's great-grandfath er. weavings are often much larger than ing process itself. Their creation of more 2 This is nm to imply the singer is ever eliminated from the process.So me weavers of sandpainting textiles petition for other styles, which means the weaver than 120 sandpainting textiles exceeded prayers and occasional ceremonies over them. Hosteen Kiah's niece Irene had a Plumeway and Gladys a Nightw~1y ceremony must spend more time and effort con even that of Klah and his nieces. in order for them to weave tapestries. Oespah and her daugh structing an oversize loom and acquiring By the late 1930s and 1940s, ters, Anna Mae Tanner and Alberta Thomas, also regularly received ceremonjes for protection and healing as a result of more wool prior to carding , dyeing, published sources by Gladys Reichard their weaving activities. spinning and weaving. Sometimes , the and Ma1y Wheelwright 's Navajo Religion References wool needs to be dyed in unusual series ( which included fully illustrated 1ewco mb , Franc Johnson, 1964 Hostc,en Kiah.· Navaho shades such as pink or light green . sandpaintings) were available to talented N!ed icine Man and Sand Painte r. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press. Although the earliest-known ceremo weavers through entrepreneuria l traders. Reichard, Gladys A., 1936 Navajo Shepa rd and \Veave r. nial rug was woven from Germantown No longer was the singer necessary as a New York J J Augustin Publisher. Wheat, Joe Ben, 1976 "Weaving," Indian An s and Cmjl s, edited yarn , subsequent ones , until the 1950s, design source for the weaver to produce by Clara Lee Tanner, pp. 30-67. Phoe nix, Arizona Highways. were almost invariably of handspun her tapestry. 2 The necessity of direct Witherspoo n, Gary and Glen Peterso n, 1995 Dyna mic Symmehy and Holistic Asym me/ly in Navaj o an d \\'les/ern Arl native wool. Today, two- and four-ply translation of the comp lex iconographic and Cosmology. New York: Peter Lang. aniline-dyed commerc ial yarn is used for idiom was eliminated through these Wyman, Leland C., 1983 Southwest Ind ia n D1ypai11ti11g most sandpainting weavings . This has publications. Troy Kennedy , for exam Albuquerque: University of ew Mexico Press. been particularly prevalent since 1960, ple , a tr·ader at the Red Rock Trading Cover: 7be Skies, from the Shooting Chant , as demonstrated in the weavings of Post, successfu lly convinced Despah unknown weav er, c. 1930, wool , 11 Despah Nez and her daughters and her daughters to weave sandpa int 112\/2" x 123Y2 , collection Tony Berlant , Anna Mae Tanner and Alberta Thomas. ing tapestr·ies, and eventually encour Santa Monica , Calif. Despah Nez and her daughters , much aged them to create entire ceremonia l Johnson County Community College like Klah and his nieces, represent cycles including Beautyway, Great Star 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park , KS 66210