Navajo-style hat band

Navajo-style hat band (full view)
Photo by Venaya Yazzie
2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Navajo-style hat band (detail view)
Photo by Venaya Yazzie
2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This year I have been in research mode concerning my subject of 'Indigenous Adornment' - but more specifically Diné adornment,  I have found the beauty of the unique cultural item: the Navajo Hatband.

The two images I have posted above are ones I captured of the new piece my grandmother and  I collaborated on. This hatband features a leather strap, buckle fastener and the most remarkable of all, the historic Navajo-made quarter buttons. I have had these coin buttons for some time and have used them on a velvet shirt I made. But, in this opportunity I liked the idea of adding them to make this hatband even more aesthetically pleasing.

This hatband was inspired by some historical photographs I have seen in photography books of the early Diné in Arizona Navajoland.  It seems that the 1940s - 1950s (this trend carried on into 1970s) Diné male adornment concerned the 1940s era felt Stetson cowboy hat. In many of the photographs I viewed the Diné men favored the black version of the popular cháá - Diné term for "hat."

I often write and favor discussion of Diné female adornment, but I was really intrigued by the hats worn by Diné in Navajoland in the 1940s era. 

Photo by Donald Allam Blair
Source: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore/glimpses-navajo-life-1950s-photographs-don-blair/

In my research I visited the National Cowboy Museum online site and discovered the photographs of Anglo photographer Donald Allam Blair from Oklahoma. He photographed the Diné  people in the community of Window Rock, Arizona in September 1955. Among the many wonderful photographs was this on of an elder Diné man 'adorned' with his hat, his earrings and traditional Diné male hairstyle.  Though you cannot see if he as a hatband on his hat, I still find this image worthy of showing an example of the type of hat worn in this era.

I for one am grateful for the non-Native photographers who captured images of my Diné people of the past - images such as this exist to inspire the new, 21st century generation of Diné people.

Blessings

By Venaya J. Yazzie 2017
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED