Chief’s Blankets, the real ones, actually disappeared around 1890. As fashion statements and clothing for the Navajo, they had been around for about a century. That’s a long time for a style of dress!
What made them unique is that they were not just blankets; they were meant to be worn. The stripes on the weavings, which were woven wider than they were tall, would wrap around the human body and come together in the front. The First Phase blankets were simple stripes, and nearly every one had the same layout of blue, brown, and white alternating bands.
Then came the Second Phase, when suddenly everyone’s blanket didn’t have to look like everyone else’s. The color red was introduced along with rectangular elements that accentuated the striped patterns and looked even better over the shoulders of the wearer.
When the Civil War was over, and the Navajo were returning from Basque Redondo, where they had been held captive during the War, the Third Phase erupted. Suddenly, diagonal lines and diamond shapes sat on the banded background. When the top edge of the blanket was folded over and then draped on a person’s body, the half diamond on the edge folded over and matched up with the diamond in the center of the back. When the wearer brought their arms to the front, the half diamonds on the edges matched up.
One time I was giving a talk at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, and Mark Winter loaned me a stunning Third Phase Blanket. I put it on during the talk and modeled how it was meant to be worn. After the talk, two young Navajo women working in collections at the museum came to me, and one said, “We have never seen a blanket worn before. It looks so much different than it does on a wall!”
The Third Phase was the crowning design period in Navajo blanket weaving.
And then, they were gone, replaced by velvet dresses, blue jeans, and Pendleton blankets. Progress and fashion move on. The Traders began encouraging women to weave heavier pieces that could be sold as floor rugs. Photos of Oriental rugs from magazines were shown to the weavers, and people like Don Lorenzo Hubble and J.B. Moore began to introduce new ideas about patterns.
But, if you think about it, some women who had spent a couple of decades weaving Chief’s blankets didn’t want to give them up and continued to weave the pattern, although with a heavier spin so that the trader could sell them as floor rugs. They were part of the transitional period.
Now, if every weaver had done that, the market would not have grown as fast, and the traders might have had to dictate that the Chief blanket was not welcome, but because there were relatively few of these pieces made at the time, and because they were still beautiful patterns, the traders bought them.
I like the transitional Chief’s styles. They are beautiful, artistic, and much less expensive than an original Third Phase blanket!
Not too long ago, a gentleman and his wife stopped in with some weavings they thought I would like.
I could tell by looking at the pile that one of them was a Second Phase Chief transitional, and it looked great. But at the bottom of the pile, I could see the diagonal lines of the Third Phase. He went through the rest of the pieces and reached for the one on the bottom to unfold it.
“I promise you you have never seen one like this,” he said.
“What could be that different?” I thought.
“This is a real Chief’s Blanket,” he said.
He unfolded the weaving, and in the center of a large diamond was the face of an Indian man with feathers coming from the top of his head. There was a Chief in the Chief Blanket.
What’s neat is that this was about when pictorials were starting to show up, and some weaver with a sense of humor, or maybe to create a “real” Chief’s Blanket, had taken it upon herself to do something special. I highly doubt that any trader influenced this weaving!
My father loved pictorials, and this would have been right up his alley. It is a nicely woven piece, probably made between 1910 and 1920. I can confidently say that it may be the only real “Chief” blanket in existence.
It is one of the experiences that makes this business so darn much fun. I’ve shown it to about fifteen contemporary weavers, and every one of them loved it. I hope you do too!
