Story Baskets
“This is how the world began - as a coil. The first people came up from the middle and walked around in a spiral. This shape is found in our fingerprints. It shows we came up from the center of the world.”
-Mary Holiday Black
In the 1990s, the Black family shifted their attention from the technical aspects of basket weaving to developing new basket designs and decorations. Inspired by prehistoric pottery and rock art (Pueblo and Mimbres) and the baskets of neighboring tribes (both historic and contemporary), they began weaving animal and human figures into their basketry. Before long they were borrowing imagery from other Navajo crafts - especially sandpainting and rug making - incorporating both geometric designs and images with religious significance, like the yei-be-chei (supernatural beings), into their baskets. Although some of their Navajo neighbors were initially uncomfortable with this use of religious images, they ultimately accepted that this new style was not meant for religious use. Just like the Navajo sand painters and the rug weavers who had earlier broken with tradition by creating pictorial painting and rugs, Mary and her daughter Sally’s artistry and innovation rapidly created a growing commercial market for their baskets.
Traditionally, designs are given from female deities to Navajo women. Today, designs used by the Black family often incorporate sacred numbers, figures, and colors that invoke allegorical tales of Navajo creation and harmony with the natural and supernatural worlds.
- Four represents the seasons, the four parts of the day, and the four directions
- White for spring, dawn, and east
- Turquoise for summer, daytime, and south
- Yellow for fall, twilight, and west
- Black for winter, night, and north
Mary does not readily volunteer information when presenting a new basket, preferring instead to have the story come out from the trader’s questions. She prefers that her baskets tell the story.
Home of the Butterflies Basket
There is an ancient Navajo legend about a man who changed into a butterfly to convince two beautiful sisters to marry him. Later, while he was out, the sisters were visited by a white butterfly whom they mistook as their husband and followed him away to his home. While rescuing his wives, the man went through four competitions to prove his worthiness. Ultimately he was forced to kill the white butterfly and when he did, butterflies of many colors and designs were released. According to Navajo belief, this explains why there are so many beautiful butterflies in the world today.
Although Mary Black has woven many baskets that feature images from Navajo myths and ceremonies, this basket is unusual because she depicts the multi-colored butterflies through abstract forms rather than through recognizable butterfly images. Her elliptical, abstract shapes convey the beauty of the butterflies’ fluttering wings and in combination with the waving black lines that reach out from the center, suggest movement and flight more effectively than a literal image of butterflies ever could.
Fire Dance Basket
When Mary delivered this basket to the Twin Rocks Trading Post, the Simpson family researched its significance. It incorporates a representation of the Mountain Chant, an ancient and almost extinct night dance ritual. The Mountain Chant is a nine-day ritual that marks the transition in the seasons and takes place in a circle of evergreen trees. The Chant is a curing ceremony for those who are sick and restores balance in human relationships. The Fire Dance takes place on the last day just before dawn when the bonfire has burned down to embers. Bundles of cedar bark are ignited and then thrown to the east first and then to the other cardinal directions. At the end of the dance, spectators gather embers to take home. The embers are believed to have healing and restorative powers.