The wonderful thing about having so many informed readers of our blog is that I usually learn something every time I send one out. Last week’s post on the Trading Post Name Rugs was no exception.
Here is the correction: I assumed that Mosi Yazzie was the weaver of the Hogback Trading Post weaving because her name was woven into it. Wrong!
In Navajo, the term Mosi Yazhi means “Little Cat.” The reference is to Tom Wheeler’s son (also Tom). Tom Sr. is known as Mosi, or Cat. That’s where Tom Jr. got the nickname. Because Yazzie is a common Navajo name, I mistakenly assumed it was the weaver. There was a book about the Four Agreements, one of which was don’t make any assumptions! I’ll try and remember that!
The addition comes from Dr. Richard Grossman, a retired physician in Durango who delivered my two sons. He sent the following note about an experience he and his wife enjoyed at Oljato Trading Post, one of the few with a landing strip. Goulding’s Trading Post, about 60 miles south, also had a landing strip where director John Ford flew in and out while making movies in Monument Valley.
“Jackson, I have a little more information about Oljato. In the 1970s, the trading post was owned by a man named Smith. l had read about him in a flying magazine, which said that he used to land on the top of Elephant Hill to supply uranium prospectors in the 1950s. Indeed, that last time we were on the top of the Hill, Gay and I figured out where a good pilot could land a Piper Cub, the plane he flew. The article also said he taught his daughter to fly using a Link trainer. The trading post was closed on Sundays, although Smith hung around to pump gas when a plane needed it. We flew there on a Sunday in October 1974, and he was happy to sell us a large Two Grey Hills that is now hanging in our living room. He also showed us the Link, sitting outside, although his daughter wasn’t around. I asked why there was such a good airstrip in the middle of nowhere and learned that business aircraft often refueled there because it was halfway between LA and Kansas, a center of aircraft manufacturing.”
Here’s the pretty cool weaving:
Oljato Trading Post was north of Monument Valley and was the trading post where Fran and Tom Bayless spent several summers during the 1970s. They purchased this weaving at the post during those years. It has the background of a Storm pattern with a Navajo Ceremonial or Wedding Basket at both ends. Many basket weavers lived in this reservation area, and many still do. In the center of the Storm Pattern, you will see red sandstone buttes found in Monument Valley. The Storm design is colored with a vegetal dye, and the buttes are woven with natural brown wool, but look at the grey background! As this weaver carded and spun her wool, she did it in different batches, creating many unique grey and grey/tan sections of yarn. The subtle changes seem to lift the rest of the design from the weaving, creating a three-dimensional image.
Did she do this on purpose? Who knows, but it differs from today when most weavings are woven with commercially spun and colored yarns. When you rub your hands across the surface of this weaving, you can feel the lanolin in the sheep’s wool.
I love this rug! I hope you do, too!
