ArtiFACT: Indian Trade Blankets

The Southwest has a rich tradition of textile production reaching back more than 2,000 years. Here the term "Indian blanket" is almost synonymous with Navajo blankets hand-woven on upright looms. But by the turn of the century Navajo women were weaving almost exclusively for an outside market and along with other Indians wrapped themselves and their families in commercial trade blankets.

Trade blankets are commercially created, machine-woven woolen textiles that were specifically produced for American Indians. Since the first contact between Europeans and American Indians, manufactured cloth, clothing, and decorative adornment were exchanged in trade. One of the most important items of "yard goods" were blankets. These blankets came into use in the mid-17th century and were treasured by all the native peoples of North America. In some instances they replaced painted buffalo robes, woven rabbit skin robes, and hand-woven Navajo and Pueblo blankets, which were also cherished items.

Pendleton Woolen Mills, founded in 1896, was the largest producer of blankets made specifically for the Indian trade. Many of the designs used were based on Navajo blanket designs. Zunis preferred plain black Pendleton blankets that more closely resembled their native hand-woven clothing. According to Emory Sekaquaptewa, Hopi anthropologist at the University of Arizona, Pendleton blankets are called "kyentivösaala" or "candy blankets" because of their striped design. Hopi men began wearing them for ceremonial occasions when hand-woven textiles became more valuable as trade items. Unlike Navajo women who wore fringed Pendleton shawls, Hopi women preferred commercial floral shawls.

Trade blankets are still used extensively by American Indians, especially for special occasions. Pueblo women wear them as brightly colored shawls at dances. Men who drum and sing are also attired in blankets. Apache girls lie down on Pendleton blankets to be massaged by their sponsors during the Sun Rise puberty ceremony. Navajo writer, Rain Parrish remembers the swirl of color from blankets at winter ceremonies in her youth and that Navajo weavers "as a special reward to herself for her hard work, or as a special gift for someone else,...had the pleasure of buying a colorful Pendleton robe or shawl."

At powwows and ceremonial celebrations, the blankets can be seen everywhere. They are worn by women as they dance and are given away by the parents of princesses in recognition of the honor given a family or by participants as thank-you presents to community members and friends. They are highly visible as signals of ethnic identity and connection to the past and individual aesthetic statements. One of the most interesting recent developments in trade blankets is the work of Hopi artist and weaver, Ramona Sakiestewa, who has designed limited edition blankets for Pendleton Mills. This line of blankets is the first to be designed by a Native American.

Diane Dittemore and Nancy J. Parezo

To Learn More About Trade Blankets:

Adult Literature:

Kapoun, Robert W., and Charles J. Lohrmann. Language of the Robe. American Indian Trade Blankets. Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith Pub., 1992.

Parrish, Rain. "The Native American Perspective on the Trade Blanket: A Woman's Experience." In Language of the Robe. American Indian Trade Blankets. pp.1-3, 1992.

Children's Literature:

Oughton, Jessie. The Magic Weaver of Rugs: A Navajo Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,1994.

Photo:

"Zuni Water Carriers" 1909 by Edward S. Curtis, ASM Photo Archives