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Earth Notes: World’s Largest Navajo Rugs

A large Navajo rug in tan, red and black colors on display at a museum.
Carrie Cannon
The Hubbell-Joe Navajo Rug at the Affeldt Mion Museum in Winslow, Arizona.

The Hubbell-Joe Navajo rug was woven by the Joe Family in the 1930s out of hand-spun wool. It was displayed at the Hubbell trading outpost in Winslow to draw in tourists during the Depression era. And at 21 by 33 feet, it was the world’s largest Navajo rug at the time.

The Hubbell Trading post used the rug as a marketing tool. It was displayed in local parades, loaned to museums, and showcased at county, state, and world fairs. It was even displayed at the U.S. Senate chambers in Washington, D.C.

To create a rug of this size and caliber required an immense family effort. The Joe family crafted the loom with a large metal pipe and constructed a small house, especially for its weaving. The local tribal community sheared 200 Navajo Churro sheep and spent 2 years preparing the wool by washing, carding, dying, and spinning it.

Julia Joe and her daughter Lillie wove from sun up until midnight, completing the rug in 1937 after three years and three weeks of weaving. The design uses earthtone dyes of grey, tan, black, and “Ganado red” to represent the Universe. It includes Puebloan border designs inspired by local pottery shards.

The Hubbell-Joe rug is still on display at the Affeldt Mion Museum in Winslow, but it’s no longer the largest in the world. That honor goes to the Big Sister Rug of Chilchinbeto, created by 11 weavers in the 1970s and housed in Window Rock. The history of both rugs tells the story of magnificent effort and community art.

This Earth Note was written by Carrie Calisay Cannon and produced by KNAU and the Sustainable Communities Program at Northern Arizona University.

Carrie Calisay Cannon is a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, and also of Oglala Lakota and German ancestry. She has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and an M.S. in Resource Management. If you wish to connect with Carrie you will need a fast horse; by weekday she fills her days as a full-time Ethnobotanist with the Hualapai Indian Tribe of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, by weekend she is a lapidary and silversmith artist who enjoys chasing the beautiful as she creates Native southwestern turquoise jewelry.
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