NOTES
Fields of saturated color radiate from two small central diamonds. In the late 19th century, a Diné artist wove this complex, vibrant design using a new type of fiber. Pre-spun yarns in a range of synthetic-dyed tones shortened weavers’ processes of preparing materials for the loom. Artists responded by experimenting with an abundance of serrated linework and high-color contrast.
Industrially manufactured yarns originated at textile mills in Germantown, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Initially created for knitters in the eastern United States, the federal government supplied these materials to the Navajo Nation as part of annuity payments following the Treaty of Bosque Redondo in 1868. Later, weavers obtained these yarns and synthetic dyestuffs from trading posts on the Navajo reservation.
