Silver bracelet with one green-colored stone set in a silver sunburst medallion. The front of the band consists of four (4) ridges alternating with three (3) furrows. Each ridge is decorated with roughly parallel, vertical incisions.

Cedar wood, unpainted. Rear, hollow concavity. Original pole cut in half. Top half (a): Design - plain, tapering cylinder at top, two main figures and part of a third. Upper figure - raven with two subsidiary motifs (crescent across chest and upper wings, a small head and hands peering over the crescent). Raven beak, separate piece of wood. Lower figure - top half of a humanoid with large head above upturned flukes which are grasped in its hands. Fragment of third figure - upturned flukes (whale-like, cut off at tail). Bottom half (b): Design - upside-down humanoid, large animal (bear?) holding a small creature (frog?) to its mouth. CONDITION: Pole cut in two, evidently before arrival at the Museum.

This pottery doll wears hanging earrings and a necklace (both of dark blue and white beads), bracelets on either wrist (of sea-blue beads), and purplish-black yarn around waist which holds a red skirt. The black, thick hair falls straight with a bang effect at the forehead. Openings in ear lobes, nostrils, and mouth--eyes are black and white. Slight suggestion of breasts: toes and fingers defined. Brown line designs cross the eyes, jaws and chin and begin at the collar bone on the torso and continue, vertically, down the chest, arms and legs. Her skirt is wrapped around the waist and fastened with a yarn waistband.

By exchange

This is a ball-headed type of war club. The incised designs on the handle include six birds on one side and four (possibly) dancing or fihjting figures on the other. The bird motifs are filled with black paint, the figures with red paint. The ball is painted black and there is fire decoration on the handle. The painted and incised designs on this club consist of six black gallinaceous birds (prairie chicken-like in silhouette) on one side. On the opposite side, two pairs of red human figures run toward one another. Each of the four carries a pipe in one hand and, in the other, an upraised arrow in an enigmatic pose. As demonstrated in this example, clubs were carved from one piece of wood. Often a thick branch attached to a trunk was chosen, or a knot of a tree would be formed into a head and the attached portion of the trunk into a handle, so that the grain had structural strength. The club is flat handled and sided and stained black at both the handle end and ball end.

The Navajo wove waterproof, striped wool blankets that became known as Chief Blankets and traded them to other tribes. In 1863 the U.S. Army forcibly removed the Navajo from Arizona to Bosque Redondo detention camp in New Mexico and killed the tribe’s churro sheep. Ingenious weavers combined commercial wool with unraveled army blankets to create new designs with colorful details, as seen here. During captivity, weavings became the primary source of income.

In 1868 the Navajo returned to their homelands, and weaving flourished with the advent of the railroad and the establishment of trading posts.

The object is a coiled, burden basket with imbricated geometric figures. There are some outer surface losses of light colored fibers. Overall condition good.

Design is fret designs in indigo, red, black and white. Good condition. In 1880-1881 the Santa Fe Railroad was extended through Navajo territory, bringing new materials and new customers for Navajo weavings. As soon as commercial four-ply yarns and aniline (chemical) dyes became available, Navajo weavers employed them to their full potential. Designs changed from simple stripes and conservative diamond patterns to an explosion of innovation in weaving, with new colors not available with natural dyes such as yellow, orange, green, and purple.

One beaded mocassin.

The basket for these prayer sticks has never been located. This impressive set has 101 prayer sticks of different sizes, colors, and patterns, strung together. Some singers kept a "sample" roll of prayer sticks to aid in making the ones used in all the various chants. This possibly might be a sample roll and never had a basket. It also might have been made for display purposes as usually the prayer sticks were destroyed during the ceremonies.