two grey hills

some of you may not know but the place where I come
from is a place of rug weavers, two gray hills and the
rugs cost a lot if you want one. in recent years they
have gotten smaller in size, it is rare to find a 3
foot X 5 foot rug now days.

i once took a business acquaintance on a trip with me
and we stopped by my aunt's place and she was weaving
a large rug. he wanted it when he saw it, she offered
him some food and coffee. i told him before we got
there he had to eat whatever he was served as a matter
of etiquette, well she fed him alot of food and he ate
it. at first she was a bit shy to meet him, because
they have no running water or plumbing. he drank cup
after cup of coffee and could not go to sleep. he went
to outhouse and ended up sitting up all night while my
cousin worked on sandpaintings.


he paid a donwpayment on the rug and she got a good
price for the rug, it hangs on the rail of his
stairway. soon after that she made one more and now is
in the nursing home in farmington new mexico.


she made many rugs over the years and her daughters
don't weave anymore, they work in towns far away.
anyway the price she sold the rug to him.


he is an acquaintance and he likes to talk about it,
and since his business deals with other indian tribes
he likes to talk about sleeping on sheep skins in a
hogan and living the life of real indians. he proved
to be a disappointment to me as he used the experience
to acquaint himself with indians, and it has become a
business tool. he is like that but i thought at the
time it would mean more to him than that. it was the
first time she had a white person in her home, but it
goes that way sometimes.


it taught me that we sometimes use each other, or
allow ourselves to be used, it seems to go that with
indian people, in this case it worked out that way.
anyway, a new trader has come to toadlena and reopened
the trading post with an eye on groomin rug weavers,
he is researching the family histories of all the
families in the area including mine.


some lady from Calif is in Toadlena, Two Gray Hills
area there in New Mexico on the Navajo rez as I speak
to finalize a book she is doing for the trader there,
she is using the family history sheets to trace the
lineage of two gray hills rugs. Those families that
don't have weavers will be left out.


a three ring binder is at the trading post on the
counter displaying drafts of the family lineages
throughout the whole area, it is their so people can
check on it themselves for correctness


some families are there, some with just a few and
others have been left out. in a way i like it and then
again i feel exploited, my birthright will be on shelf
gathering dust someday...in some ways it invades my
privacy and then again preserves it


the trading post was closed and we lost the zip code
87324, it no longer exists. this new trader is
teaching the young people, men and women too to weave
big rugs, two gray hills style to encourage large old
fashioned rugs. he is from santa fe and there are
people who come from santa fe, durango and taos to
sleep in hogans, and to learn to weave there.


in some ways it is preserving the past, in others it
is using the people. one thing in know since i grew up
there i never ever went behind the counter at the
store not once in my whole life, and this new trader
invited me to eat with his wife and him. he was open
and friendly, and he is in the middle of the night
getting up to give people a ride and let's them use
his phone if they need it.


not sure what to think about the whole thing. it is
good and bad, but in a way it is bringing back life to
the community.


one thing i thought was funny, when you used to walk
in the trading post in the old days all the new shiny
galvanized buckets would hang from the ceiling, with
new rope, saddles and stuff like that. now days when
you go in the buckets are all rusted out, old and a
weathered old saddle hangs from there now.


i could see my grandmother walking in there, she is gone
now but she used to walk up there everyday to check the
mail, if she went in there she would have laughed...
I could hear her saying that trader is strange, what
good are those rusty buckets. it would be the talk of
the old folks all winter and when they would see each
other they would laugh about it.


i suppose the folks there are laughing and will all winter
long looking at those old rusted buckets....


rustywire