Diné Weavings Watching Over the Museum

MIP Author
2 days ago
5 min read

Large Diné weaving hanging above exhibit cases, wooden beams and a bench inside the Museum of Indigenous People. — Visitors encounter cultural materials throughout the galleries, but some of the museum’s largest Diné weavings are found overhead.

Most people enter the Museum of Indigenous People looking straight ahead. Pottery, baskets, jewelry, clothing, photographs and other cultural materials naturally draw the eye.

Some of the largest works in the museum, however, are hanging above them.

Diné weavings rise along the walls and descend from the heavy wooden beams of the museum’s historic galleries. Their scale, geometry and careful construction make them impossible to overlook once someone remembers to look up.

A Second Gallery Overhead

The weavings occupy a space that might otherwise disappear into the dark timber ceiling. Some hang vertically between the beams. Others appear above exhibit cases, benches and walkways, where they can be seen from across the room.

They are not decorations added to fill empty wall space. Each weaving carries the decisions of its maker through the choice of wool, color, tension, pattern and proportion. Together, they create a second gallery above the pottery, clothing, tools and other cultural works displayed below.

The museum’s stone walls and exposed timber give these textiles an unusual setting. Light moves differently across woven wool than it does across glass or pottery. From one side of the room, a rug may appear almost architectural. Up close, it becomes possible to see the individual lines of yarn and the small variations left by the human hand.

The Story of Eye on the Storm

Many of the photographs shown here were taken while museum staff and volunteers prepared Eye on the Storm, an exhibition presented by the Museum of Indigenous People in 2020.

The exhibition focused on generations of Diné weavers who worked with the design commonly known as the Storm Pattern. The rugs were loaned by Mark and Linda Winter, owners of the historic Toadlena Trading Post in New Mexico. The exhibition was inspired by Mark Winter’s book, also titled Eye on the Storm, which explores the history and development of the design.

Preparing the galleries required far more than placing labels beside finished work. Assistant Director Manuel Robert Lucero IV worked with museum staff and volunteers to raise, position and secure the large textiles. Installation photographs show volunteers standing on ladders, adjusting the top edges and stepping back to make sure each weaving could be seen clearly.

Those photographs preserve a part of museum work the public rarely sees. Large textiles must be supported without stretching or damaging the fibers. Their weight, dimensions and condition all affect how they can be shown.

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Reading a Storm Pattern

Storm Pattern weavings vary widely, but many share a recognizable structure. A central form is connected by stepped or zigzagging lines to shapes near the four corners.

These elements have received many interpretations. The lines are often associated with lightning, while the center and corner forms have been connected with the hogan, the four sacred mountains, water and other parts of the Diné world. Those explanations are useful, but they should not be treated as a single translation that applies to every rug.

There is no universal diagram that unlocks the meaning of every Storm Pattern weaving.

The pattern provides a structure, but each weaver makes decisions within it. One artist may emphasize balance and repetition. Another may alter the proportions, introduce unexpected colors or make the connecting lines more prominent. Family knowledge, regional traditions, available materials and the market have all influenced how the design has changed over time.

The result is a body of work that is recognizable without becoming uniform.

Placed side by side, the weavings show how artists worked within a recognizable design tradition while making individual choices in color, proportion and detail. — Row of Diné weavings in tan, gray, red, black and white displayed along a museum gallery wall.

The Work of Bessie Manygoats

One of the weavings installed for Eye on the Storm was made by Diné master weaver Bessie Manygoats.

Mark Winter described the piece as one of the largest and finest works of her distinguished career. It was woven with more than 70 wefts per inch, creating a surface closer in density to a tapestry than an ordinary floor rug.

That number is difficult to appreciate in a photograph. Seen inside the museum, the scale of the work and the density of the weaving become much clearer. Every inch represents repeated passes of yarn, careful counting and sustained control of the loom.

A large weaving can take months to complete. The artist must maintain the overall design while working close to the surface, often seeing only a small section at a time. The finished pattern emerges gradually through memory, planning and experience.

What Photographs Leave Out

A photograph records the pattern, but it cannot fully convey the physical presence of a weaving.

Inside the museum, visitors can see how the wool responds to light. They can notice where natural tones shift, where one line becomes slightly thicker and where the surface changes with the density of the weave. The size of the textile can be understood in relation to the beams, stone walls and people standing nearby.

The hanging rugs also change the rhythm of the gallery. Their long vertical forms draw the eye upward, while the repeating lines lead it back toward the exhibits below. Pottery, jewelry, photographs and textiles are not encountered as unrelated objects. They share the same space and become part of a larger conversation about Indigenous knowledge, artistic practice and continuity.

Look Up During Your Next Visit

The weavings are easy to miss when attention stays at the level of the exhibit cases. Once noticed, they change the way the entire museum is seen.

During a visit, pause beneath the wooden beams and follow the lines of one rug from the center toward its corners. Notice where the pattern repeats, where it changes and how the weaving relates to the cultural works around it.

Plan your Visit

The Museum of Indigenous People is located at 147 North Arizona Avenue in Prescott, Arizona. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM and is closed Sunday.

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