Pueblo Textiles, 2014

Textile arts of the Southwest are most often focused on the vivid and bold work of the Navajo but the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona have been producing a wide range of traditional and ceremonial textiles for as much as two thousand years.

Native people made these textiles, not for trade to tourists or the market at large, but rather for use in their daily lives and especially ceremonies. The designs have remained relatively unchanged since the beginning of recorded history in the region and are almost always associated with rain and the fertility and the life giving sustenance it brings. Stylized clouds both in embroidered designs and physical form (large tassles) are common motifs on the simplest and most complex textiles.

Shiprock Santa Fe presents Pueblo textiles from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century including banded blankets, embroidered wedding mantas, maiden shawls, rain sashes, early indigo dyed mantas, and other traditional forms.

We encourage you to explore this centuries old art of the Pueblos!