AN ART OF THE NAVAJOS by J. J. Peatfield

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 4, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 43.

AN ART OF THE NAVAJOS.

By J. J. Peatfield

THERE is evidence that among the Navajos the art of weaving antedates the time when any skill was imparted to them therein through the Pueblo Indians by the Spaniards. To-day they are preëminent in the art among the native tribes north of Mexico, and their advancement in the industry is due more to their own intelligence and artistic inclination than to the influence of European instruction. The wonderful variety of designs displayed in their fabrics, and the innumerable combinations of colors, are witnesses to the fertility of imagination which the Navajo weaver's mind is gifted with; while the fact that in a thousand Navajo blankets no two patterns can be found exactly alike proclaims that each designer scorns imitation or repetition. Our artists might take a lesson from them.—J. J. Peatfield, in August Californian.