206 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
blanket being lowered as 
the work progresses. No 
shuttle is used, the yarn 
is inserted with tbe 
fingers or by the aid of a 
small stick. The woof is 
forced down by pressure 
with a fork or by the blow 
of a batten stick. The 
weaving of North Amer- 
ica is peculiar in that the 
woof strands of a partic- 
ular color are not carried 
entirely across the blan- 
ket, but only as far as 
that color is required for 
the design. It is then 
dropped and another col- 
or taken up. 
CoLors oF NAvAJso 
BLANKETS 

The colors employed 
are the natural white 
WEAVING A NAVAJO BLANKET 
and brown of the well- 
Insuring a close weave by beating down the woof  * 
with a batten. Both implement and method are washed wool, a gray 
characteristic of the Southwest which results from the 
mingling of these, and 
various native and commercial dyes. Some of these were almost certainly 
employed by the Navajo in basket-making. Black they produced by com- 
bining a concoction of sumac (Rhus aromatica), roasted ocher and pinon 
gum. Dull red was obtained by placing the yarn in a liquid made by boil- 
ing in water the bark of alder and mountain mahogany. Lemon yellow was 
secured by the use of the yellow flowers of the shrubby Bigelovia graveolens 
and a native alum. Old gold resulted from rubbing into the wool a paste 
made of sorrel roots and crude alum ground together. In rather early days 
indigo blue was obtained from the Mexicans and displaced native blue. 
A bright scarlet and a rose color were obtained in the early history of blan- 
ket-making by ravelling woolen cloth obtained from Europeans. Blankets 
containing such material are called “bayeta” from the Spanish name of 
