Weaving Life in the Dine World
an interview with Navajo Weaver Winnie Henry
by Sandra Cosentino
December, 2006
Weaving to Winnie
Henry--a handsome, wise and determined Navajo woman--is to weave
together the pieces of your own life.
Every portion of weaving is a representation of Life.
The whole part of setting up the loom is the Universe.
What's in the Universe?
Life.
What makes Life?
How does Life live?
Every living plant on Earth lives for a reason.
Forward, backward living is Future.
What's in Life is all up to you, once you learn your Right and
Wrong.
"Weaving to me is keeping my art. There is a legend behind
it given to us by Spider Woman. She gave the art in a spiritual
way." The deeper meaning is not shared in public. Winnie was
told to do so might cause her to loose her art. Her dark brown,
almost black eyes radiate a depth and a quiet sense of power and
strength as she speaks.
Spider
Woman instructed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom
which Spider Man told them how to make. The crosspoles were
made of sky and earth cords, and sheet lightning. The batten
was a sun halo, white shell made the comb. There were four
spindles: one a stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of
turquoise; a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a
whorl of abalone; a rain streamer formed the stick of the
fourth, and its whorl was white shell.
Navajo Legend |
 |
Young girls that want to weave have to be initiated. Then they
can learn from a wiser woman who will share sacred stories for
her to hold within her heart. You are being blessed by the Holy
people. They are proud of you. You keep believing it and doing.
"Art is life to me." Upon
returning from her boarding school years, Winnie knew weaving
was valuable. She realized it could be an art that died and knew
she had to keep it. Winnie continues today to weave many traditional
patterns such as the Chinle, Lightning, Two Grey Hills, Yeibichai,
Chiefs, Ganado Red, Big Star, and Storm. (Photos of these rugs.)
This is her personal expression of beauty--a harmonious synthesis
of elements that expresses activity, movement and energy.
Every part of weaving
represents something like thoughts within the mind. "When we do a good pattern, a good design, it makes
a train of thought." With each new woven creation, her own
thoughts become clear and focused as she plans, organizes and begins
visualizing the pattern in her inner eye. All of this was given
to women as part of weaving along with skillfulness, exercising
the hands and fingers, strengthening the back, keeping the posture
straight.
Winnie learned watching
her Mother weave and from years and years of practice. She remembers
how fast her Mother wove knowing she had to provide support for
9 children. "My Mother told me
if you know how to weave, you will never starve." During her
Mother's time every part of the weaving process was done by hand
beginning with sheering and cleaning the wool to cording, spinning
and dying the wool. It took all day to set up a loom. "I wanted
to learn, I wanted to be like my Mother." If there is more
than one daughter, an older woman can tell who will become a weaver.
Winnie, however,
had only brothers--8 of them. Growing up in a earthen-floored
hogan, she helped her Mother with the daily cleaning, water hauling
and cooking. Each day the sheepskins they slept on had to be
taken outside and shaken out. She also rode horses, herded sheep
and learned to be strong in all ways. "Somebody made
me be born right in the middle of 4 boys ahead and behind me for
a reason," Winnie says with pride. "I cried a lot of
times, why me? I was trained to be tough." Even today she
walks the trails in and out of rugged Canyon de Chelly and lives
in a remote hogan.
Winnie's own birth was very dramatic. Her Mother came into labor
on a cold March morning, 1945, at 3 am in their isolated Canyon
de Chelly, Arizona hogan. It took her Father more than half an
hour to catch and saddle the horses. As they started up the 600
foot canyon wall on the White House Trail (which is much rougher
than the well graded trail of today), her Mother, Rose Henry, was
having contractions. Rose stopped and got off the horse and Winnie
popped out and landed in the snow. All her parents saw was steam
rising from the snow surface. Her Dad quickly dug her out and wrapped
her in his shirt. He bundled Mother and daughter up and rode to
her Great Grandmother's hogan, which unfortunately was locked.
But he found a sharp can lid with which to cut the umbilical cord.
Then he rode for help and the hogan key. He came back with her
Grandmother who spanked her and gave Winnie her Navajo name which
is only used in communicating with the Holy Ones. It is the name
they know her by. Later they went to the Ganado Hospital which
is about 65 miles away and the nurse there gave her the English
name she carries today as her public name.
Growing up speaking
only Navajo, her parents hid her from the Bureau of Indian Affairs
people who came to take the kids away to boarding school. Winnie's
parents believed a girl did not need an education in white men's
world. So whenever she would be coming back to the hogan with
their sheep flock, if a BIA vehicle was there, she was told to
hide and wait until they left. At age 15 she finally was sent
to boarding school in Ship Rock, New Mexico where they cut her
hair, forbade her to speak Navajo or practice her religion. "I thought they were mean. I got homesick and
became ill with high fever and almost died." For the next
10 years, Winnie, an "over-age" student who did not fit
in, was sent to boarding schools in Shiprock, Ft. Wingate and Albuquerque,
New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona. Her last year a high school was
opened in Chinle so she was able to graduate in her home town.
Chinle is a large Navajo service center town built at the mouth
of Canyon de Chelly.
"I always wanted to go home. The teaching from my parents
and grandparents were a treasure to me. Every Sunday, we had to
go to a Christian church. But I never lost my Native religion.
Mom and Dad always said, "if you know who you are, where you
come from and where you are going, you will never get lost in this
world. I believe that philosophy so deeply, so I stayed with my
own religion."
Winnie says with
firm conviction, "I
can pray anywhere. God doesn't tell us to practice this way and
that way. I don't think there should be a routine. There are
signs I see and notice when I pray. Examples make me believe--people
living their belief. My culture and my religion live within me
and won't come out. Trees, water, every living thing has male
and female. The heat, the air, is for a reason. All are team
work."
I witnessed people with alcohol problems. I feel like it is not
their fault they started drinking. They were never told what my
Mom and Dad told me. How to keep my center of faith. You have to
be an example if you want to help people with addiction problems.
I refer back thousands of years to First Woman and First Man. Generation
to generation, never written. Mistakes were made, corrections were
made. I also read the Bible three times as an adult. To me the
Old Testament is very similar to our legends. I used to teach Sunday
School.
Hozona h'astleen
is the way the Dine (Navajo word meaning "the
people"--what they call themselves) close their prayers. Winnie
interprets this as "everything will go well." She says
to be in balance you must evaluate good and bad in your thoughts
so one does not get overemphasized. "Everybody makes a mistake,
sometimes you just need a listener to heal yourself."
"To walk (live) in beauty and to die naturally of old age
is the Navajo notion of the good life. Weaving offers Navajo women
the chance to be active participants in the generation and expression
of beauty. To be able to create and experience the universal theme
over and over again--each time in a unique way--is certainly an
exercise that builds self-esteem and enhances self-expression."
(quote
from Tension and Harmony: the Navajo Rug,
Plateau magazine
of the Museum of Northern Arizona,, 1981)
I asked Winnie what advice she might offer to people. "I advise
women to weave together the pieces of your own life. Remember that
interwoven with the mind are meditation and thoughts. Find something
to look forward to--a permanent goal--and go get it. When you make
a mistake, correct it. Life is like a menu, you have to mix all
kinds of ingredients to stay strong. If you get too perfect, you
are in heaven already. Once you find yourself and open the door,
you know when to come home."
You can order a
custom-made Navajo rug from Winnie
and, if you are in are at an Arizona location, arrange a weaving
demonstration and talk:
Winnie Henry
PO Box 1583
Chinle, AZ 86503
Some of the traditional
designs that Winnie weaves are Chinle, lightning, chief, big star,
, talking bird, yei.
See photos of
rugs here.
Estimated costs,
depending on design:
2 x 3, $360
3 x 4, $675
4 x 5, $975
4 x 6, $1,275
5 x 6, $1575
50% deposit, balance on pick up in Chinle or with
COD delivery. Buyer pays shipping, insurance, COD fees.
updated March 3, 2008