Symbolic Constructs in Traditional Navajo Weaving

George Richards is a respected presence in the Naples, FL community who has a leadership background in consumer product marketing. Passionate about art collecting, George Richards has a particular focus on antique French ceramics and Native American and Southwestern art.

One of the most distinctive traditional arts of the Southwest is Navajo weaving, with blankets of the 19th century and earlier often featuring motifs related to the Spider Woman, one of the Holy People who was believed to have created the tribe.

A symbol of the Spider Woman is the cross, which is often repeated across the blanket. In some designs, the crosses would be enclosed within graphic elements such as triangles and diamonds. The latter shape represented the Navajo homeland Dinetah, which had four sacred mountain corners.

Placing the cross within a shape was considered risky, as the Spider Woman was not of the terrestrial realm and her spirit could become entrapped within an enclosing form. For this reason, an actual hole, or woven graphical hole, might be incorporated within the cross to provide an escape route.

When Navajo blankets started to be commercially produced in the early 1900s another motif emerged, the spirit line. This thin line of colored thread represented an escape route for the weaver’s creative spirit. This had to do with traditional artisans being concerned that their creative spirit would get trapped in the blanket produced for commercial sale, and eliminate their ability to weave again.