Museum of Anthropology Exhibit Showcases Navajo Resilience and Traditions
An effort by the federal government to control grazing in the 1930s led to the decimation of the Churro sheep population, an act that also impacted the livelihood of the Navajo people who relied on them as a source of food and wool.
Now, an exhibit in the Utah State University Museum of Anthropology tells the story of the cultural significance of these animals to the Navajo and one man’s mission to reintroduce Churro sheep to the reservation.
Spanish explorers first brought Churro sheep to the Southwest in the 16th century. The sheep are a part of the cultural lifeblood of the Navajo as wool from the breed has been used for four centuries for weaving blankets and clothes and their meat as a source of food for the Diné — or Navajo — people, said curator Monique Pomerleau.
“Churro sheep are particularly well-adapted to the Southwest and they are an integral part to Diné society and culture,” she said. “The environment, the Navajo People and the sheep are all related and all dependent on each other.”
Churro sheep wool is particularly well suited for traditional Navajo weaving, a skill passed on to younger generations by women. The exhibit Diné: Weaving a Tradition of Strength, which opened May 2011, showcases traditional Navajo weavings on loan by USU alum Michael Morgan, and examines the history and resilience of the Navajo and the churro sheep through these intricate pieces.
“The Diné are a strong group of people that have faced a number of challenges and have endured — much like the Churro sheep,” Pomerleau said.
Reduction efforts of the Churro stock began in the 1860s when the government systematically destroyed the majority of the population to aid with westward settlement and moved the tribe off its native lands. Another program was launched in the 1930s to further reduce the sheep population. Their numbers dwindled until only about 400 roamed the entire Navajo Nation, an area nearly the size of West Virginia.
In the 1970s, Lyle McNeal, professor of animal science at USU, launched the Navajo Sheep Project, an effort to breed the Churro back from the brink. He understood their importance to the Navajo not just from an economic standpoint, but also from a cultural perspective, said Pomerleau.
“They were a dying breed and he wanted to bring them back,” she said.
McNeal is renowned across the reservation for his efforts, especially among weavers like D.Y. Begay, a world-renowned contemporary Navajo weaver whose work is featured in the exhibit. Much of the wool she uses comes directly from sheep initially bred by McNeal and passed down by her mother.
In October 2010, Pomerleau led a small group of students to the reservation for an ethnographic project to meet Navajo weavers and learn their craft in order to prepare the exhibit. Among the five female students was Britt McNamara, a graduate student in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ anthropology program, and Sally Rydalch, a USU art student who helped design the exhibit. They were eager to learn the whole process of weaving from the beginning.
The students learned how to clean and prepare the wool, how to build a loom, and what it means to be a weaver. Begay, a fourth generation weaver, taught them how to card wool, spin it into yarn and color it using walnuts and tea using the traditional techniques.
For McNamara, whose career aspirations are to make anthropology more accessible to the public, meeting the weavers and the farmers on the reservation was important to understand that the Navajo are an evolving people who adapt to change and continue to define who they are.
“We can’t just think of them as museum pieces,” she said.
Since returning from the reservation, Rydalch has erected her own loom and continued weaving at home. Churro sheep have begun appearing in her art work and writing.
“Whatever I do, I need to take something away from the experience,” Rydalch said. “I need to learn something. For me, it was a really interesting experience. It was this group of women learning about women.”
More information about the exhibit and other exhibits at the Museum of Anthropology is available online.
Related links:
USU Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Writer: Kristen Munson, (435) 797-0267, kristen.munson@usu.edu
Contact: Monique Pomerleau, (435) 797-7545, monique.pomerleau@usus.edu
Original artwork was created for the exhibit in USU's Museum of Anthropology. This detail pays tribute to the Churro sheep, much valued in the weaving tradition.
A weaving in the exhibit by Rose Mike from Two Grey Hills, N.M. (weaving on loan by USU alum Michael Morgan)
An array of colors produced by using the Navajo Tea plant to dye yarns. (photo courtesy Monique Pomerleau)
TOPICS
Anthropology 41storiesComments and questions regarding this article may be directed to the contact person listed on this page.
