The Master Weavers: The Story of a 100-Year Success
By Ernie Bulow
This is not just a book review, it is a nearly unique story of five (or six) generations of Navajo artists and the amazing traders who partnered with them to give the public access to the pinnacle of Native creation – the Two Grey Hills rug.
The full title of the book is The Master Weavers: Celebrating One Hundred Years of Navajo Textile Artists from the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills Weaving Region. A celebration indeed. The lavishly illustrated work is just two pages short of the six hundred mark, but there isn’t a page that could be left out.
Author Mark Winter has been one of the leading dealers in Navajo textiles for more than forty years, but he never visualized the amazing collaboration he got into when he re-opened the tiny trading post at Toadlena on the flanks of the Chuska Mountains.
He recognized that the Navajo rugs from that area were superior in both design and execution – but he also realized that he would have to push the market to keep fine weaving alive. Elsewhere on the Navajo Nation, almost all rugs were being woven from commercial yarns, dyed with chemical colors and were generally shrinking in size.
The boundaries of regional rugs were blurring, as weavers copied other textiles, followed their own whimsy, or just got sloppier. Really large, tapestry quality, traditional textiles looked to become extinct. The only sure way to keep fine weaving on the market was to offer a reasonable return on the many hours it takes to create such tapestries.
Mark Winter has put together a remarkable book – an exhaustive survey of the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills trading area, the development of the distinctive weavings, and the artists and traders responsible for a one-hundred-year success story. It is impossible to do justice to Mark’s rapport with his people and the trust they have put in his abilities, as a trader and an author.
I have been following the gestation of this huge work for many years and no amount of library research could have produced this document. What makes it wonderful – and unique – is Mark’s love for his subjects and their artistry, and their trust and feeling for him. Most of the photographs and much of the information has come directly from the Navajos themselves, and this is a remarkable achievement.
The story of the Two Grey Hills rug begins a century ago with the elusive trader J. B. Moore of Crystal, just over the mountain. In 1911 he published a catalog in color, titled “The Navajo,” with magnificent photos of Navajo life by Brother Simeon Schwemberger of St. Michaels Mission. He didn’t even stick around long enough to distribute many copies of the beautiful little book. Other traders mailed it out under their own names and reaped the benefits. It seems to be the first attempt to standardize Navajo weaving, though many traders like Hubbell are given credit for establishing their own regional styles.
The roster of traders over the years who have sustained the integrity of the Two Grey Hills style is impressive. At first the Toadlena post was hardly more than a shack but it was taken over and expanded by George Bloomfield. There were half a dozen trading posts in a fairly small area and they all promoted fine weaving.
Ed Davis at Two Grey Hills took the distinctive rugs to the first fairs at Shiprock, organized by Agent William Shelton. This exposure seems to have established the “Two Grey Hills” designation for the style, though it covered several posts including Nava, owned by Arthur Newcomb of Hosteen Klah fame. Sanostee, Little Water, Tocito and Newcomb form a circle with the two more famous posts.
Many believe that George and Lucy Bloomfield and their descendents (traders’ children intermarried to a great degree) deserve much more credit than they have received for their contribution to the Indian Trading business. Marie and Willard Leighton took over Two Grey Hills and expanded its business, followed by their son Bob.
Most of the nearly six hundred pages of this book are devoted to the many generations of “master weavers” from the area. No matter how boldly and convincingly the traders promoted the Two Grey Hills rugs, the story is really about the hundreds of artists who created them.
Weavers like Daisy Taugelchee dominated the Inter-Tribal Ceremonial for many years. Bessie Manygoats, Mrs. Police Boy, Mary Yazzie, Iona Lewis, Rose Mike, Julia Jumbo, Virginia Deal, Rose Blueyes and Clara Sherman, along with dozens more and their hundreds of weaving descendants are profiled in the book.
This year’s Best in Class Weaving winner at Indian Market in Santa Fe, Lynda Teller-Pete told an audience jokingly, “It’s like the Mafia. You are born into ‘the family.’” Interestingly, her prize-winning rug was of a non-traditional design.
The illustrations are almost overwhelming – from one to five color photos on nearly every page. Charts, graphs, family trees, lists of design elements and rare ephemera enrich the book. Winters has included photos of pawn tags, prize ribbons, dye packets, facsimile letters and pages from catalogs.
The most exciting pictures for me are the very early family photos Winter’s people have entrusted him with. It is a surprise that so many rare photographs have survived from the early part of the twentieth century – some of them hand-colored.
Unique in so many ways, the Two Grey Hills area is also famous for its many male weavers – starting with the famous medicine man Hosteen Klah. Frank Gould was easily the equal of any of the ladies; he and James Sherman are also considered Master Weavers. Ben Tsosie and others carry on that tradition.
When stock reduction in the thirties decimated Navajo flocks, and nearly brought weaving to an end, the people of the Two Grey Hills area managed to hang on to many of their animals. The wool is closer to the churro clip of Spanish times and the animals come in rare colors – hues of yellow and gold and tans. The long-staple wool is relatively easy to card so different shades can be blended to make new colors.
Mark Winter signing his book.
As a bonus, Winter found the answer to an old question – whatever happened to J. B. Moore after his catalog was published? Charlie Newcomb of Crystal supplied the answer: Moore got himself a mail-order bride and she embroiled him in a nasty charity scam. Eastern churches were sending food and clothing for the Indians and Mrs. Moore was selling them instead of passing them out. Needless to say, when exposed, the Moores left town quickly, under cover of darkness.
Newcomb told the story to rug expert Gil Maxwell and he passed the info on in a letter to Frank McNitt who buried it in his papers. McNitt’s book The Indian Traders is a classic, but the author was curiously selective about who and what he included in the text. The fate of J. B. Moore was just one of many interesting items he didn’t bother with. Thankfully Mark dug through the archives and brought it to light.
Mark acknowledges his debt to wife Linda Larouche and son Justin. The countless hours of research and writing over a stretch of twenty years were a labor of love.
This is an amazing book and I hope its intimidating size and retail price won’t cause people to overlook it. It is a valuable document of time, place, people and a true success story. The book is available from the Toadlena Trading Post via its website.
