Mae was born around 95 years ago. Even she does not know for sure how old she is because no one recorded the date when she was born.

We do know that she has been at it a long time!

On Saturday, June 18, Toh-Atin Gallery will be traveling to Utah for our Annual Silent Auction and Sale of over 150 Navajo weavings. It will be a fun and interesting day at one of the most beautiful museums in the country.

Back in 1957, when my father, Jackson Clark Sr.,  started buying and selling Navajo weaving, he was also in the Pepsi Cola business. When he went to his first wholesale show, the Los Angeles Gift and Jewelry Show, the show manager asked him what his company name was. He told them it was the Jackson David Bottling Company. It was named after him and his partner, Dave McGraw.

We have received a lot of credit for being the traders who developed the Burnham area Navajo weaving designs. That, of course, is not true. The weavers from the Burnham area, specifically the Begay and Barber families, did not need anyone to help them create these wonderful pieces.

Ruth Teller was one of the finest Two Grey Hills weavers. She lived in a small place not to far from Newcomb on what used to be Highway 666. My dad used to stop and see her and I went with him a couple of times.

She had three daughters that also were amazing weavers. Two of them, Roseann Lee and Barbara Ornelas worked together to create a large Two Grey Hills tapestry that won the Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 1987. It was the first Navajo weaving to win the award and it set a record price for contemporary Navajo weaving when it was sold.

One of the most interesting periods in the history of Navajo weaving began in the 1880s and went through the first decade of the 1900s. It is called the Transitional era because it marked the switch between the weaving of wearing blankets by Navajo women to weavings intended for sale.

The evolution to the commercial marketing of Navajo weaving actually began in 1882 when the railroad reached Gallup. For the first time there was a way to transport goods back to the East. The trading post owners were quick to realize the economic benefits that would accompany this potential new market for Navajo weaving.

I grew up watching Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry and every other Western television star that could be found on the three stations we received on our black and white television.

The Annual Navajo Weaving Sale and Silent Auction will be Saturday June 10, 2017 at the Museum of Natural History of Utah in Salt Lake City, Saturday.

You can spin it anyway you want, but there is nothing like the third week in August in Santa Fe! The town is bustling with energy, and shows featuring the finest in Native American and tribal art are all over town. Every gallery, shop and museum is featuring their best and you get to rub shoulders with the nicest artists and friendliest people in the world!

Navajo Yeibichai weavings have been made since the early part of the 1900’s. They depict dancers in a healing or blessing ceremony that is performed after the first frost in the fall. The Yeibichai dancers represent the Yeis, Navajo deities, and are an essential part of the ceremony, which also includes a Navajo medicine man creating sand paintings. 

Weavings depicting the Yei figures first appeared in the Shiprock area of the Navajo reservation. They were encouraged by traders in the area and became a traditional Navajo weaving pattern. The Yeibichai weavings were a natural evolution of the Yei patterns. 

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.