We recently came across a very nice example of the type of Navajo rug that was woven in the 1903-1920’s era on the Navajo reservation at the Crystal Trading Post. The post was owned, in fact it was built, by a man named John B. Moore who had traveled much of the west before settling in the beautiful mountain area near the New Mexico and Arizona border. 

After 13 years Sallie Wagner Lippincott and her husband Bill left the Wide Ruins Trading Post, which they purchased in 1938. They were art collectors and their trips took them to diverse parts of the world, from post-war Japan to Santa Fe.

In 2000, a couple from Scottsdale, Arizona walked into Garland’s Navajo Rugs in Sedona, Arizona, one of the most respected dealers in Navajo Textiles in the country. As they were coming through the front door, a Navajo weaver was making her way out. 

“I stopped and held the door for her,” the man said. “She had a big smile on her face and said thank you. She seemed to be floating on air.

The Chief Blanket, woven by the Navajo Women of the 1800s, was one of the most prestigious possessions a Southwest American Indian could possess. The blankets were simple and elegant in their design, beautifully woven and accented the body of the weaver. 

On November 3 in Denver, we will be holding the 33rd Annual Benefit Silent Auction and Sale of Navajo Weavings (and we have now added Indian Jewelry) to benefit the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History.

It used to be that the phone would ring four times a year. Rosita Lee would be calling from Crownpoint, NM to say that, “Mom has some rugs she wants to bring up Tuesday.”

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.

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!

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. 

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.

“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.

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.