UNM-Gallup Prof Pens Book on Navajo Weaving

For release - May 27, 2008

Teresa Wilkins was fascinated with weaving from childhood. Born in rural North Carolina, where textiles were a major industry, she picked up scraps of material from her grandfather’s mill and wove them on a small loom. That youthful interest would eventually inspire her to focus on textiles while she earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. From there, she would embark on a course of research, writing and teaching that would lead her into the heart of the weaving world on the Navajo Nation.

Wilkins, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico-Gallup, is seeing the fruits of her lifelong interest now that her book, “Patterns of Exchange: Navajo Weavers and Traders,” has been published by the University of Oklahoma Press. That book represents not only ten years’ work on Southwest textiles in general, but a specific focus on Navajo weaving that involved logging many miles driving the back roads of the Nation to record interviews and conduct field research.

“I did research in trading post archives, and I also conducted interviews and ethnographic studies with weavers. I asked weavers about their experiences today, and they also told me about their mothers and grandmothers,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins also looked at the relationships between weavers and traders, and how the traders influenced them as far as patterns and ideas and how much sovereignty they had for their own productions.

Wilkins, who has a degree in art marketing and production from Appalachian State University, obtained her Master’s as well as her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. During the course of museum work, she was hired by the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History in Boulder to curate an exhibit of Southwest textiles.

“The Southwest textile collection of the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History is one of the top collections in the world, for scope and study potential,” Wilkins said. “The exhibit we did was based on the research of Joe Ben Wheat, later my grad school advisor, who developed a chronology for Southwest weaving based on materials, designs, collection histories and the history of the area. This was my introduction to Southwest textiles.”

Today Wilkins uses that knowledge not only in her teaching, but as a consultant with businesses and collectors who want identification and authentication of Southwestern textiles.

Besides researching, writing and teaching about textiles, Wilkins has been a judge at various juried native art exhibitions, including the Intertribal Ceremonial and Santa Fe Indian Market. She was recently accepted into the first annual New Mexico Women Authors’ Literary Festival, set for September 27 in Santa Fe, and sponsored by the Museums of New Mexico.

For more information, contact the University of New Mexico-Gallup Bookstore or the University of Oklahoma Press, (405) 325-2000.

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