Susie Harrison Navajo Weaving, Teec Nos Pos Trading Post, Black Ground

The tag still tied to the corner is the kind of document that makes a textile speak. On one side, stamped in teal ink: TEEC NOS POS TRADING POST — "Genuine Navajo Rug. Authentic Navajo Hand Woven Rug. Produced in the 'Heart of the Indian Country.' This rug made entirely by hand by American Navajos." On the other side, handwritten in blue ink: Name of Weaver — Susie Harrison. Rug No. TL535. A direct, named identification, preserved in the original tag, still tied to the warp at the corner. That tag is provenance.

The weaving itself is worked in handspun wool on a solid black ground with two banded panels placed at opposing ends — the asymmetric placement giving the piece a quiet compositional tension. The upper band carries a row of deeply serrated crimson stepped-diamond forms over a central striped rail of yellow, indigo, and dark blue. The lower end answers with a wider, more complex panel: yellow-outlined red comb-tooth motifs above and below a multicolor rail of blue, yellow, and red stripes — a palette shift that signals intentional variation rather than repetition. All four corners are tied off with black wool tassels, a hallmark of the trading post's mid-century production. The broad, open black field between the bands is not absence — it is framing, concentrating the eye on the color work at either end.

Teec Nos Pos — the name translates roughly as "cottonwood trees in a circle" — sits in the far northeastern corner of the Navajo Nation, in the Four Corners region of Arizona, near the borders of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. The trading post there became the anchoring institution for a regional weaving tradition that developed its own distinct visual grammar in the early 20th century, known to collectors simply as the Teec Nos Pos style: heavily outlined geometric forms, bold borders, and densely decorated fields. The style is among the most architecturally complex in the Navajo weaving canon, sometimes described as "outline style" for the way each element is edged in a contrasting color, creating a stained-glass effect. This weaving sits at the simpler, more graphic end of that tradition — the outline work is present in the lower band, but the composition as a whole favors strong contrast and open field over the dense all-over patterning of classic Teec Nos Pos textiles. The trading post tag with the 602 area code places this weaving no earlier than the mid-20th century, consistent with the trading post's active production period spanning the 1940s through the 1980s.

• Woven by Susie Harrison, Navajo weaver; identified by original Teec Nos Pos Trading Post tag, hand-inscribed with weaver's name and rug number
• Sold through Teec Nos Pos Trading Post, Teec Nos Pos, Arizona 86514 (P.O. Box 940); tag retained from original point of sale
• Original paper tag present and legible; tag notation reads Rug No. TL535

Named-weaver Navajo textiles with their original trading-post tags intact are increasingly difficult to find in the open market. The tag does the work that decades of subsequent ownership cannot: it anchors the weaving to a specific hand, a specific post, and a specific transaction. For the collector focused on mid-century Navajo textiles from the Four Corners trading-post tradition, this is exactly the paper trail that matters — not added later, not reconstructed, but tied to the corner from the day it left the loom.

CONDITION

Good. Weave structure is sound throughout with strong, saturated color and no apparent losses to the wool field. Black corner tassels intact at all four points with only minor fraying at some tassel tips. Original paper trading-post tag present and legible, with age-toning and small spots to the tag surface consistent with age.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• 20 1/2" W × 37 3/4" L
• Material: Wool
• Weaver: Susie Harrison
• Trading Post: Teec Nos Pos Trading Post, Teec Nos Pos, Arizona 86514
• Tag Rug No.: TL535