Chinle Trading Post
(Chinle - It flows from the canyon.)
elevation: 5058'
Location: Gateway to Canyon de Chelly area, northeastern Arizona. (Spanish corruption of the Navajo word "tseghi," meaning "rock canyon," with the English pronunciation a further corruption from the Spanish),
Ganado (Spanish meaning "herd of cattle") is situated on the crimson shale plains midway between the Defiance Plateau on the east and the Hopi mesas to the west. The main trading center is nestled in a small valley along the southern banks of Puelby Colorado Wsh, 28 miles west of Window Rock on Arizona Highway 264 (Navajo Route 3)
ESTABLISHED: 1882 - first known merchant. 1886 - first valid license issued to Lorenzo Hubbell, of Ganado, and his partner C. N. Cotton. Business was poor at the first Chinle store and Hubbell let his operating license lapse the following year. In 1900 he returned to the Chinle area and constructed a second post on the site of today's post office. Realizing the tourist potential of Canyon de Chelly, Hubbell built an elaborate two-story rock hostel to accommodate guests; the floor level serving as the trading post. Hubbell's foresight for tourism was correct, but it was about 30 years premature. The "no cars - no roads" environment of the Reservation forced a second withdrawal in 1918 when he sold the holdings to his partner, Cotton. Later a tri-partnership of Camilo Garcia, Leon H. (Cozy) McSparron, and Hartley T. Seymour bought all three posts in the area and concentrated their business back at the mouth of the canyon.
THE RUG: Trader Leon H. (Cozy) McSparron is responsible for the Chinle style rug. His experiments with dyes both vegetal, and commercial, provided impetus to his weavers to revive the simple stripes and bands of the Early Classic Period, (1700-1850). The modern Chinle rug has maintained the McSparron suggestion and today reflects the combination of both vegetal and aniline dyes. It is generally considered; however, that the contemporary Chinle is basically vegetal. Commercial dyes are used sparingly to outline or accentuate the smaller designs. The borderless rug has a spacious feeling with
small terraced designs and squash blossoms encased in broad bands. Some of the intervening stripes use the Crystal "wavy line" techniques. The weavers in the district create an attractive rug of pleasant balance. Natural white wool usually provides the background, with less used shades of vegetal-dyed green, brown, and gray. Rose colors and yellows are favorites, along with aniline black to denote outlines and termination panels at the ends. The rug is distinctive and well-woven. Some pieces must be closely examined to distinguish them from a Crystal or Wide Ruins. One of the keys is the color utilization, part vegetal and part aniline. Also, the weave is somewhat heavier than its all-vegetal neighbors.
Still another effort to change the course of Navajo weaving was undertaken by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, a Boston philanthropist and amateur anthropologist. Working with Cozy McSparron, referenced above, Wheelwright supplied photos of old blankets to the weavers, and the cash to buy their first efforts, beginning in the early 1920's. Wheelwright preferred the 19th century classic pieces with their primarily horizontal borderless patterns, rather than the bordered oriental-style rugs common elsewhere on the Reservation. She also encouraged softer colors derived from native dye plants. The first dye experiments produced shades of gold and green, but soon weavers experimented with more dyes to get an extraordinary range of colors not seen in older weaving. This vegetal revival style became very popular and was taken up by other traders, first at Wide Ruins in 1936, and then at Crystal around 1940.
Source: Posts and Rugs, The Story of Navajo Rugs and Their Homes, by H. L. James, Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Third Printing 1979; Copyright 1976 by Southwest Parks and Monuments Association. (Pages 64, 66, 67).
Weaving of the Southwest, Marian Rodee, 1987, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA, (Page 99).