Bird and Cornstalk Rug

Bird and Cornstalk Rug

1983
Maker
Ason Yellowhair, United States
Country
United States

Ason Yellowhair, United States

1983

7.8 ft. X 10.9 ft.

The Gloria F. Ross Collection of Contemporary Navajo Weaving of the Denver Art Museum, 1984.4

Photograph © Denver Art Museum 2009. All Rights Reserved.

About the Artist

Ason Yellowhair is an accomplished weaver who lives on the Navajo Nation, an area that covers over 27,000 square miles of land, extending into Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. In 2002, she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona. Yellowhair began weaving banded geometric designs and moved to pictorial rugs in the 1950s, eventually settling on her present style in the 1970s. She describes weaving as very hard work: “You perspire a lot. A man might work hard chopping wood, his shirt hanging out or maybe no shirt at all. It’s the same with weaving—very hard work.” Yellowhair has shared her skill with her family, teaching most of her daughters to weave when they were children, and continuing a tradition that has been passed down from one generation to the next.

What Inspired It

This type of Navajo weaving is referred to as a pictorial rug. Although these rugs became common in the late 1800s, they were not sold as “art” until the 1900s. They are now sold to tourists, collectors, and museums. Yellowhair’s Bird and Cornstalk Rug is part of the DAM’s Gloria Ross Collection—a collection of Navajo rugs from the late 1900s.

The history of Navajo weaving is one of change and constant innovation. Navajos learned loom weaving sometime in the 1600s from neighboring Pueblo peoples. The art form was further enhanced by the introduction of sheep by the Spanish. Trade, tourism, and the art market have been an inspiration and influence for artists, and have made a major impact on Navajo weaving.

Details

Rug Design

This rug follows the unique Yellowhair family style, which is characterized by a large horizontal format, simple borders, and several rows of plants and birds running perpendicular to the weaving direction.

Plant Stalks

Unidentified plant stalks are arranged in horizontal bands across the width of the rug. They are adorned with red, white, orange, and beige flowers. According to her daughter, Yellowhair based the stylized plants on designs she saw on Wrigley’s Spearmint Chewing Gum wrappers.

Birds

Although birds are significant in traditional Navajo religion, Yellowhair says her birds carry no specific sacred meaning, but “express a positive and happy outlook on life.”

Border

The border is made up of a geometric pattern that is repeated all the way around the edge of the rug, framing the picture in the center.

Grey Background

Notice the uneven coloration of the grey background. The wool used to make this rug would have come from multiple batches that would have been individually dyed, resulting in slight variations in color between batches.

Navajo: Rug Weaving Traditions

Navajo: Rug Weaving Traditions

More Resources

Navajo Weavers Carry on Centuries-Old Tradition

Though not from the perspective of the trading post itself, this video discusses the contemporary Navajo weavers who sell their weavings at the Toadlena Trading Post in New Mexico.

Weaving with Marie Begay

This video shows a Navajo weaver, Marie Begay, giving axstep-by-step explanation of the Navajo weaving process, from raising the sheep to weaving a rug.

Navajo Master Weavers: Clara Sherman

Listen to Navajo weaver Clara Sherman discuss the process of weaving and her weavings.

Navajo Rug Weaving - Traditions Monument Valley

This video shows a Navajo weaver weaving a rug.

Websites

Navajo Nation

The official Website of the Navajo Nation

Books

Gilbert, Maxwell L. Navajo Rugs: Past, Present & Future. Santa Fe, NM: Santa Fe Images, 1987.

This concise book examines Navajo rugs, from how they are made to the different types of rugs, with 20 color images.

Hedlund, Ann Lane. Reflections of the Weaver’s World: The Gloria F. Ross Collection of Navajo Weaving. Denver: Denver Art Museum, 1992.

A catalogue from a Denver Art Museum exhibition which included Ason Yellowhair’s rug.

Knowles, Gerald M. The Navajo of North America. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2003.

A photographic illustration of the history and culture of the Navajo, including contemporary culture.

Max, Jill, ed. Spider Spins a Story: Fourteen Legends from Native America. Rising Moon Publishing, 1998.

This compilation of Native American stories includes “The Legend of the Moon,” a Navajo tale.

Oughton, Jerrie and Lisa Desimini. The Magic Weaver of Rugs: A Tale of the Navajo. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

A beautifully illustrated version of the legend of how Navajos came to weave.

Pasqua, Sandra M.The Navajo Nation. Mankato, MN: Bridgestone Books, 2000.

A colorful intriduction to contemporary clothing, houses, tribal industry, and ceremonies of the Navajo, including a bibliography for further reading.

Roessel, Monty. Kinaaldá: A Navajo Girl Grows Up. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1993.

A book about the coming-of-age ceremony for Navajo girls.

Tapahonso, Luci and Anthony Chee Emerson. Songs of Shiprock Fair. Walnut, CA: Kiva Publishing, 1999.

An illustrated story told through the eyes of a young girl of a trip to the Navajo Shiprock Fair, held annually in Shiprock, New Mexico.

Woven by the Grandmothers: Nineteenth-Century Navajo Textiles from the National Museum of the American Indian. Washington, DC: NMAI and Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.

Documents one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Navajo wearing blankets in the world.

Children's Books

Blood, Charles L., Martin A. Link, Illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker. The Goat in the Rug. New York, NY: Aladdin, 1990.

This is a story about friendship and cooperation. Geraldine is a goat and Glenmae is a young Navajo weaver. One day, Glenmae decides to weave Geraldine into a rug. The reader will learn about the process of weaving about the care and pride involved in the Navajo rug making tradition.

Roessel, Monty. Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1995.

The author tells the story of his daughter, Jaclyn, learning to weave from her grandmother, Nali Ruth. Traditional stories and facts about the Navajo are interspersed throughout the step-by-step explanations and photographs of the weaving process. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Funding for object education resources provided by a grant from the Morgridge Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Education Programs, and Xcel Energy Foundation. We thank our colleagues at the University of Denver Morgridge College of Education.

The images on this page are intended for classroom use only and may not be reproduced for other reasons without the permission of the Denver Art Museum. This object may not currently be on display at the museum.