# Men's Wearing Blanket (Third Phase Chief Style)

- By: Navajo (Diné) (Navajo (Diné), active late 19th century; Navajo Nation (parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, United States))
- Date: c. 1870–1880
- Medium: Wool, wedge tapestry weave, bound edges with corner tassels
- Classification: Textile
- Dimensions: With tassels: 165.1 × 195.6 cm (65 × 77 in.); Without tassels: 161.3 × 193.7 cm (63 1/2 × 76 1/4 in.)
- Culture: Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico, & Utah
- Credit line: Gift of the Powell Family in memory of their parents Father Peter Powell and Virginia Raisch Powell
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/122875)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/9b41a86c-b130-9674-f717-ddd09ea1fcde/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Horizontal black stripes and bright red diamonds span this men’s wearing blanket. White crosses dotting its edges and center pay homage to Spider Woman (Na’ashjé’ii Asdzą́ą́), the sacred being who gave Navajo people the gift of weaving. Weavers tell Spider Woman stories only in the winter time, when spiders and other insects are at rest.

Although Navajo blankets are often displayed flat, they are created to be folded and worn. Fifth-generation Navajo weaver Lynda Teller Pete emphasizes that these blankets are “made for warmth.” Not only do blankets provide physical comfort, their circulation through trade economies also sustains weavers’ communities. “Every textile that Navajo people have produced fed someone’s family,” says Teller Pete.

This blanket was donated by the family of Father Peter J. Powell (1928–2022). Father Powell was an Anglican priest, a Northern Cheyenne Chiefs Society member, and a scholar of Cheyenne art and culture, who served Chicago’s Indigenous communities.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0