Starting in the third grade and continuing throughout my life, I had always taken an interest in Native American Culture and history. In the 1970’s, while doing my two year service as a conscientious objector at the Indianapolis Goodwill Store, I had purchased a handful of old Navaho rugs that had come in to the Goodwill Store. I was very curious to find out about them, and so before starting on our trip to Arizona which is Navaho country, I took some Polaroid photos of my rugs, to take along on the trip, hoping to learn more about them.
During our road trip, we stopped at a trading post south of Cameron, I showed the owner the photographs, thinking he might know something about Navaho rugs. He looked at the pictures and declared they were Mexican. I was dismayed by the answer, not because I thought the rugs were Mexican, but because of the guy’s lack of knowledge of Navaho rugs.
Then when the owner noticed a swastika on one my rugs, he told me that it was “definitely not Indian, because the Indians helped fight against the Japanese during World War II.” By this point, I knew the owner knew nothing about Navaho rugs, or Navaho culture, so discouraged, I put the Polaroids back in my pocket and walked away.
I knew that the swastika was an important old Native American symbol. In Indian culture the swastika symbol, which they called “whirling logs” was a harbinger of good luck, healing, and balance, In the 1930’s when my mother was a girl, she got to travel to the Arizona and brought back a Navaho silver ring that sported a swastika on it, so even when I a boy, I had learned that a swastika was an important image in their culture. The swastika in Indian culture is square shaped, while the Nazis swastika was diamond-shaped.
Native artisans used the swastika in their cultural items until the 1940, when the world began to see the symbol as something to do with Nazis. Native artisans held a meeting and agreed they would no longer use of the swastika on any of their rugs, jewelry, or other objects and ceased doing so. There have been attempts to reintroduce the image of their swastika which to them was known as “whirling logs”and part of their creation story, but it has been met with resistance. Any Native American item with a swastika was made be 1940.
At another trading post, this one inside the Navaho Reservation, I asked the sales lady, who was Native, about my rugs, but she couldn’t tell me anything. I noticed that one of the Indian blankets that were being sold had mohair strands in it. Because I had a herd of Angora goats at the time, which is where mohair comes from, I asked the lady if the area’s Native residents had any Angora goats. She said, “No.”
The experiences I had at the trading posts made me question just how knowledgeable the sales personnel were about the products they were selling. I also thought it was funny that the country and western music that was playing in the trading post when we walked in, suddenly stopped, and was immediately replaced with Indian chants.
The photos show my Navaho rugs. The one on the top has the swastikas.
No comments:
Post a Comment