| The
story of the Toadlena Trading Post is intricately woven within the
story of Two Grey Hills rugs.
It begins around 1868 when
the Southwest Territories became part of the United States and the
Navajo began settling on the reservation. The first white traders
were fur trappers, who traded red cloth to the Navajo for access to
the reservation.
Where there was water, there
was rug trading.
Mobility was limited to horse and wagon in the
1860's, so the traders traveled throughout the arid reservation,
parked by water and waited for the natives to arrive. Most posts
were established at water sites for this very reason, and the names
of many trading posts begin with the Navajo word for water, which is
"to." Just like Toadlena.
The wagon "posts"
brought the outside world to the Navajo. They were loaded with
desirable supplies, such as coffee, flour, tools and hardware. In
exchange, the traders took silver jewelry, sheared wool and hand
woven Navajo textiles back to the white settlers.
Demand for Navajo rugs
increased and higher prices were paid. By 1900 the traders and
weavers were working together to develop marketable designs that
characterized different regions of the Navajo Nation. Each was named
for the trading post in its area, such as Two Grey Hills, Ganado,
Teec Nos Pos and Chinle.
Toadlena, or "Water
Bubbling Up."
It is said that Joe Wilkin, a trader from nearby
Crystal, sold his post on the western slope of the Chuska Mountains
to J.B. Moore. Wilkin moved to the eastern side of the mountains to
establish the Two Grey Hills Trading Post in 1897.
Around that same time, wagon
trading was established at a nearby spring six miles west of
Wilkin's post. The wagon post was called Tohalii, which means,
"water bubbling up" or "water coming up from the
ground." By 1900 Tohalii was corrupted to Toadlena.
Toadlena and the Two Grey
Hills Weavers.
Merit and Bob Smith built a small adobe store on the
Toadlena site. 1909 brought an addition, and the post was sold to
George Bloomfield. He had become familiar with the area while
surveying the site for the Toadlena Boarding School.
Meanwhile, Ed Davies
purchased the nearby Two Grey Hills Trading Post.
Together, Bloomfield and
Davies worked diligently with the local weavers to develop a high
quality textile that utilized the weavers' preferences for hand spun
yarns in natural colors -- a conscious contrast to the popular
commercially dyed reds of the Ganado rugs and the psychedelic
Germantowns. The Toadlena/Two Grey Hills style of Navajo weaving was
born.
Davies sold his Two Grey
Hills trading post in 1924, which led to a succession of traders
there. Bloomfield continued to work with the weavers for another 10
years, dramatically raising the status of the Toadlena/Two Grey
Hills rugs. They are now considered the finest Navajo textiles of
the 20th century.
Today, all the Two Grey
Hills weavers from Toadlena are ancestors of those who wove for
Bloomfield and Davies.
Bloomfield sold the post to
his daughter Grace and her husband Charles Herring in 1934. Around
1956 they sold it to Fred Carson, who sold it to R.B. Foutz Jr. in
1957 or 1958. He ran it until it closed in 1996.
Toadlena Trading Post Today
- Just Like the Old Days.
Navajo rug trader Mark Winter reopened the
post in July 1997 after a successful lease negotiation with the
local tribe and extensive remodeling to retain the original
character of the building. The post continues to serve the needs of
the local families by providing goods like groceries and propane as
well as banking and mail services. It caters to tourists who
purchase rugs, tapestries, silver jewelry and other local
handicrafts.
At Toadlena Trading Post,
trade is carried on as it has for more than 100 years - the locals
pay accounts monthly when wool is sheared or when a rug is finished.
Winter works closely with the local weavers of Two Grey Hills
continuing the support, encouragement and relationship that was
established by the traders before him.
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