A yei’i is a Navajo holy
person. As early as the mid-1800’s, Navajo weavers were
placing pictorial elements into their weavings. Yei’i figures
first appeared in Navajo weavings before the turn of the twentieth
century. Considered highly controversial because of their sacred
imagery, Navajo weavers nonetheless persisted in incorporating
these religious figures into their rugs.
Four areas of influence contributed
to the development of Navajo yei and yeibichai weavings. In the
early 1900’s, Yanapah, a Navajo weaver married to trader
Richard Simpson and living near Farmington, New Mexico, started
weaving large single and double figure vertical yei rugs.
Another area of influence
in northwest New Mexico came from the Newcomb Trading Post’s
partnership with a prominent medicine man named Hastiin Klah
who was responsible for the creation of rugs depicting Navajo
sandpainting designs. Highly controversial because of their sacred
depictions, Klah’s weavings nonetheless had a tremendous
influence on weavers of that area and eventually weavers in northwest
New Mexico started weaving sacred figures and other design elements
into their own Navajo rug creations.
In the early 1920’s,
traders in the Lukachukai, Arizona and Shiprock, New Mexico area
were encouraging weavers to create multiple figure yei weavings.
These early Navajo yei weavings typically had a white or other
light-colored background and used a plethora of aniline-dyed
yarns for the creation of the yei figures.
Today, this popular style
of weaving graces many a fine collection of Navajo rugs. The
difference between a yei and yeibichai weaving depends on the
depiction of the holy Navajo beings. Yei weavings tend to have
static, front facing figures, depicted either singly or more
frequently with multiple figures in a horizontal row often surrounded
on three sides by a single rainbow yei.
Yeibichai weavings depict
the actual ceremonial dance performed in the winter months. An
elaborate nine day ceremony, it features male and female yei’i,
Talking God, the water sprinkler, fringe mouth yei’i, medicine
men and patients. All or some of the above mentioned deities
and people will appear in a yeibichai weaving, typically in a
more animated form to portray the dancing of the yei during the
ceremony.
