Esther Etcitty was born in 1944 in a traditional Navajo Hogan near Sanostee, New Mexico, about thirty miles southwest of Shiprock. The major trading posts for Navajo weaving in that area are Two Grey Hills and Toadlena.

Until 1983, we had not considered carrying work by non-Indian artists, but there was a woman in town whose work everyone in the family liked and we wanted her to be part of the gallery.

Navajo pictorial weaving has been around since the early 1900s. The original pieces were simple. Scenes of railroad trains were a popular early pattern in the rugs. Some weavers still create this type of pictorial.

The Burnham weaving style would not have evolved without the determination of Anna Mae Barber. She is the oldest of the five sisters who created the weaving style. When their mother died, she took on the responsibility of raising the younger girls and taught them to weave. Anna Mae left a legacy of kindness and determination and love.

One of the happiest people that we work with is Vercinda Begay from Two Grey Hills. She has been weaving for over 20 years but is best known for her miniature looms with all the weaving tools and yarn.

These looms are built of cedar and finished to be great display pieces in your home.

In 1936, Sallie Wagner Lippincott and her husband Bill moved to the Navajo Reservation as National Park Service employees at Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. 

One of the first people they met was Leon Hugh (Cozy) McSparron who was the Indian Trader at the Thunderbird Ranch (which is now the Thunderbird Lodge and is owned by the Navajo Tribe) at the mouth of the Canyon.

Many of you who follow our newsletter are aware that we are in Durango, Colorado, the home of Fort Lewis College and the Center of Southwest Studies.

The Center is the home of the Durango Collection, representing 800 years of weaving in the Southwest. It was put together by Mark Winter and Jackson Clark Sr. The living collection was donated to the Center by Richard and Mary Lynn Ballantine of Durango.

“From Debutante to Indian Trader,” is the story of a woman born into a privileged life in Wheeling, West Virginia who ended up buying the Wide Ruins Trading Post in 1938, at the age of 32, and transformed the art of Navajo weaving.

Prior to 1983, when we still operated our Navajo rug business out of the front office of our father’s Pepsi Cola business in Durango, it was a common sight to have a pickup truck pull up in front of the bottling plant and see an older Navajo woman emerge with a Navajo weaving rolled up in a Blue Bird flour sack.

When a weaver walked into my Dad’s office, everything else stopped. He would get everyone in the group a Pepsi and they would catch up on the family stories.

North of Flagstaff, Arizona 85 miles and 45 miles south of Page on Highway 89 you will find “The Gap” Trading Post. It is situated deep into the Navajo Reservation and lies on a paved highway linking Northern Arizona and Lake Powell. 

It wasn’t always that accessible. 

We are headed to the beautiful Natural History Museum of Utah this coming weekend for our annual Navajo Weaving Silent Auction and Sale and Trunk Show of Native American Jewelry!

There are a few Navajo weavers who make round rugs. These weavings are not common as there are some challenges to creating one. Over the years, we have worked with several women who made them, but they have all passed on.