We’re just catching up with this story from the (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun about the weekend’s Navajo Rug Auction at the Museum of Northern Arizona. It was, as Diandra Markgraf makes clear, wildly successful.

She describes the crowd roaring in appreciation as each of the 300 rugs made its appearance at the event held twice yearly and sponsored by the Flagstaff Cultural Partners and the Coconino Center for the Arts. And she gives readers who might not be familiar with the tradition some background information:

Concentrated in the Four Corners region of the Rez in places with names like Teec Nos Pos, Ganado, Klagetoh, Shiprock, Two Grey Hills, Ye’ii, hundreds of Navajo women are at home, tediously weaving rugs out of the landscape. These women are also weaving pieces of themselves into long-lasting tradition.

Originally, Navajo weavings were forged mainly for utilitarian purposes. The wool for these rugs was hand-carded, hand-spun, hand-dyed and woven into something useful and durable, like a saddle blanket or sitting pad.

If a woman spun her own yarn, she would also most likely hand-dye it using organic pigments from whatever she could find that would stay color-fast. These “vegetal” dyes are preferred by purists — they are made from Navajo tea for a rust color, sagebrush and plant roots for greens and berries for shades of blue.

Jennifer McLerran, an art history and museum studies professor at Northern Arizona University, says that “you can tell one style from the other by the designs, quality of yarn and color patterns. The look of each piece is influenced by its area of origin, the personal touches of the designer and the interests of the trader.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff Cultural Partners, Four Corners, Ganado, Gwen Florio, Klagetoh, Museum of Northern Arizona, Native American news, Navajo, Navajo Rug Auction, Navajo rugs, Northern Arizona University, Shiprock, Teec Nos Pos, Two Grey Hills, Ye'ii