Unknown Maker, Diné (Navajo)

The “eye dazzler” blanket with its dizzying pattern of serrated diamonds became popular in the 1880s. The brilliant reds were achieved by using commercially spun and aniline-dyed yarns from Germantown, Pennsylvania, which were initially supplied to the Indians in 1864, after Navajo flocks had been destroyed during the “Long Walk” to Bosque Redondo, near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Because of Navajo raiding, the U.S. government had ordered the army to move tribal members off their ancestral lands in northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona to an internment area at Bosque Redondo, some 200 miles southeast, where they remained from 1863 to 1868 before being allowed to return to a reservation in their home area. Many years were required to replenish the sheep flocks lost during this period, and Germantown yarns remained popular well into the 20th century.

Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth 45.082