can anyone tell me if these are Navajo sand paintings and who they depict

sorry if this is a little screwed up. I found these while clearing out a closet the other day, will try to sell locally,but would like to be a little knowledgeable in description, I bought them years ago at estate auction of antique dealer from Minn, He had boxes of native and SW items, most of which ended up in my greedy little hands, Anyway I waffling again,the back of the dancer with rattle has Gray Hills written on it in pencil, the other writing is much too faint for me to see, I am sure they are tourist items, as always thank you all for looking and for comments, also a Kachina doll with M Nelson on bottom, I cant find anything about him, wonder if still alive ,did see an item in i collector for a D and M Nelson, thank you all again.

 

This won't help at all, but the only M. Nelson I can think of is Mike Nelson, fictional scuba diver played by Lloyd Bridges in his TV series Sea Hunt. See, totally useless, extraneous baloney!

 

All sand paintings like this are made for sale to tourists and collectors. The authentic sand paintings are made on the ground during a ceremony and destroyed as part of the healing. They are not made to be seen by outsiders.

These souvenir "sand paintings" are made to be permanent, and made specifically not to be accurate depictions of the real sand paintings. They therefore are either complete fantasies, or made to look similar to the real thing, and basically just commercial souvenirs.

The top photo is meant to show a female Yei (the holy people of the Navajo culture). Female Yei have square heads, male Yei have round heads.

The bottom figure is meant to show a Yeibechai dancer (the Navajo dancers who portray the Yei in ceremonies.) Yeibechai are always shown with blue heads (signifying they are wearing a mask) and in profile, to make clear that they are not the actual Yei.

Male Yeibechai dancers typically have a green spruce ruff around their neck, two eagle feathers on their heads, and a fox pelt hanging from his back. In addition to the 6 male dancers, there are 6 female dancers, a Talking God, and a Water Sprinkler, who are dressed slightly differently. The fact that this figure wears a long sleeved shirt and long pants, means he is probably representing a Water Sprinkler.

Neither figure is exactly like it would be in a real sand painting, but this is what they are based on.

No relation to Two Grey Hills, despite the (misspelled) penciled reference. The background looks more like Monument Valley, a long way from Two Grey Hills.

 

Thank you Taupou for your very informative reply.and you also springfld. arsenal

 

The Yei looks like she is blessing a Navajo wedding vase, a double spouted vessel used in the unity ceremony.
Gray Hills could just be a little note that this particular sandpainting was to be sent to the Two Grey Hills Trading Post to be sold. Monument Valley is iconic, and could have been painted by artists in other areas as well.
The Kachina doll looks like Tawa, a Kachina representation of the spirit of the Sun.

 

My last post disappeared. This one was a second attempt, which I deleted after number one suddenly appeared again.

 

As to the doll, it is not an authentic kachina doll. It is a Navajo carved figure. Kachinas are spiritual figures from the pueblo cultures (the Hopi and the 19 Rio Grande pueblo tribes), they are not found in other Native American cultures. The Navajo are Athabascan, totally unrelated to the puebloans.

Only the Hopi and Zuni carve authentic kachina dolls for sale, since it is still frowned upon by many tribal traditionalists as being sacrilegious to do so. Because kachinas are not part of their culture, Navajo carvers feel no such restrictions, and carve their version of them, flooding the market with inexpensive souvenir items. Some may resemble authentic kachina dolls (books on kachina dolls and kachina doll carving are widely available, after all), but the majority have a distinctive style which immediately identifies them as Navajo. Whenever you see a carving with rabbit fur decoration, or lots of feathers, leather, wool, or fabric...it's an indication it is Navajo. The Hopi and Zuni do not make kachina dolls like that.

Most Navajo carvers (who have a long tradition of carving great folk art figures), will usually refer to these carvings as "dolls," not "kachina dolls." That distinction will usually be lost by the time the carvings show up on the secondary market, however.

(This could easily turn into a post better suited to Rants and Raves, I'd better stop.)

 

Some background to the wedding vase form:

The story of the "wedding vase" is just that...a story. It's a bit of made-up nonsense designed to help sell souvenirs to gullible tourists.

The wedding vase form is thoroughly documented in references, most recently in the book "The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico" by Jonathan Batkin.

It was actually designed by John Candelario, an early Santa Fe curio dealer. He took the idea to Santa Clara potters and had them make the design to sell in his shop. He added the invented story and the name "wedding vase" to help sales.

The first Santa Clara "wedding vases" were made in 1900, but the idea quickly spread to other tribes and it became an iconic Indian pottery souvenir. Some Indian potters believed the story enough to repeat it as the truth, and now it's repeated endlessly on line. But there are no documented wedding vases dating earlier than those commissioned by Candelario. And no documented tribal wedding ceremonies using anything like a "wedding vase" prior to Candelario's imaginative tale.

And now there are wedding vases sold in Southwest tourist shops...made in China.

 

Of course, the Chinese will make anything if it sells. And wedding vases sell, just like any other Southwest pottery.
I used to only know the Santa Clara vases, until I saw a non-Santa Clara one being used in a Navajo Unity Ceremony. I asked about it, and it turned out to be Navajo made.

Well, it is all information, and don't worry, I'm with you on the Kachinas, totally agree.

 

The Navajo have always been open to, and very good, at adapting/adopting parts of other cultures. It's part of what helped them survive as a tribe when they migrated to the Southwest around 1400. Afterall, Navajo silver work was learned from the Mexicans, weaving from the pueblo tribes, and "Navajo" rug designs from Oriental/Middle Eastern patterns.

The only difficulty comes when it becomes hard to determine what "traditional" Navajo art really is. And when "adapting" becomes "cultural appropriation."

A few things are sure. The Navajo came up with the idea of making souvenir/collector items by putting sandpaintings on particle board. No other tribe does that. The Navajo loom and weaving technique is unique, and even if Mexican weavers copy the designs, a genuine Navajo weaving is one-of-a-kind. And while modern Navajo pottery usually consists of greenware purchased in Gallup, decorated with design patterns from other tribes or cultures...their traditional brown, pinon pitch-coated pottery fired in a bonfire isn't made by anyone else.

I think it's that strong need to add a personal touch to something one makes, coupled with the willingness to look to other places for inspirations, that makes Navajo folk art so appealing, at least to me. I discovered the book "Navajo Folk Art" by Chuck and Jan Rosenak, long after I had already assembled a collection of pieces I didn't even realize were in that category. It's a book I highly recommend to anyone interested in authentic, if not necessarily main-stream, Navajo art.

 

SO informative, Thank You Taupou, .. Joy.

 

That is also the sign of a living culture. A living culture evolves, sometimes slowly, sometimes fast, depending on circumstances.

A friend got very upset when I gave him a small early 70s Australian Aboriginal barkpainting, because it was made using modern dyes (but in traditional colours). The barkpainting had the official Yirrkala seal of approval and information on and by the artist, which was good enough for me.
But he wanted time to stand still for these people, and have them make natural dyes the old, time consuming way. Which would have included travelling on foot for weeks to specific mountain ranges to collect specific ochres. I thought, give those people a break, and let them express themselves in the way they prefer, instead of having to answer to some 19th century European notion of what ethnographic art should be.
This same friend loved Native American glass beadwork, by the way, which of course wasn't around in pre-contact days.

I like that too. I have a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and syncretic/philosophical background, and have always been attracted to art that is a harmonious mix of different cultural influences. It's the way many cultures and styles have evolved naturally for thousands of years through trade routes.

 

To add to the discussion, examples abound in the world of NW Coast Native art. There are modern NW Coast artists who have incorporated Maori influences; a recent museum exhibit brought together artists from both cultures; many recognized similarities in their traditional styles, and the cultural transfusions have enlivened the art of both cultures.
And there has been some controversy over the "authenticity" of totempoles and masks made with modern tools and modern paint; but really, as soon as good tools and paint became available, the NW Coast carvers began to use them. Not to impair their art, but to continue their traditions in the best way possible.
And there always has been discussion in the art world, and among NW Coast artists, as to how much change is allowed, versus how much deference to tradition. The best manage to incorporate innovation while not abandoning tradition; and on the edges of that endeavor there are always works that will not appeal to some. I personally was not impressed by the NW Coast artist who did some paintings in a cartoonish "manga" style; or by Barry Herem's squared-off ovoid done in the medium of pressed paper.
But I love much of the work in glass done by Preston Singletary, and the pottery of Judy Cranmer, though neither are traditional media for NW Coast Native art.