About this artwork
Hastiin Tła was a Medicine Man specializing in healing chants. In this tapestry based on a sand painting, he depicted the last morning of the nine-day Nightway Chant for healing, although he may have intentionally omitted a symbolic item included in the original painting. The four pairs of Rainbow People are guardians that keep the patient safe. Each consists of a female with a square head and male with a round head, both holding spruce branches and feathers. They stand atop a stone in one of the Diné’s sacred, ceremonial colors: shell-white for the east, turquoise-blue for the south, abalone-yellow for the west, and jet-black for the north. Two Holy People and their spirits trail across the sky, indicating that the healing is done.
—Lynda Teller Pete, fifth-generation Diné tapestry weaver
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Status
- On View, Gallery 57
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Department
- Textiles
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Artist
- Hastiin Tła
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Culture
- Diné (Navajo)
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Title
- Rainbow People Have Arrived (Nááts’íílid Bee Yikáh)
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Places
- Arizona (Object made in:), United States (Object made in:), Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico, & Utah (Object made in:), Navajo (Object made in:)
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Date
- Made 1915-1935
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Medium
- Wool, dovetail and single interlocking tapestry weave; edges finished with three strand weft twining with four knotted corner tassels
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Dimensions
- 172.2 × 160.8 cm (67 3/4 × 63 1/4 in.)
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Credit Line
- Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment
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Reference Number
- 2002.299
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
