Learn About the Art > About Navajo Rugs > Navajo Weaving: Historical Periods > Navajo "Chief" Blanket

To view our available Chief Blankets, please click here.

The Navajo "Chief" Blanket

Navajo First Phase "Ute Style" Chief Blankets: circa 1800-1860

Finely-woven of hand-spun churro wool with natural white and dark brown wools and indigo blue-dyed wool. Among the earliest Navajo blanket styles and a favored item of the Ute tribe to trade for, the Chief Blanket was woven on a loom that was wider than tall.

Navajo Second Phase Chief Blankets: circa 1840-1880

The example at right is woven with both hand-spun (natural white, dark brown and indigo dyed blue) and commercial trade wools (cochineal dyed red). 

The second phase Chief Blanket develops rectangular motifs within the bands.

The Second Phase style was popular into the early reservation days and was supplanted by the Third Phase.

Third Phase Chief Blankets:
 circa 1860 - 1940

The example at left is woven of hand-spun wool yarns with natural white, dark brown, carded gray (with light aniline purple over-dye), vegetal yellow-dyed, and aniline red-dyed wool. This blanket would also be considered a "Transitional Chief blanket" as it is from the early reservation period and is larger and heavier than earlier examples. 

The Third Phase pattern of full, half and quarter diamonds (and sometimes referred to as a "9-spot), was very popular with traders, who continued to encourage weavers to use the pattern well into the rug period.

Woman's Chief Blanket

Blankets with narrow bands and smaller proportions are often termed "Women's Chief Blankets" such as the one at right.

The crosses in this blanket were often seen on traditional Navajo women's dresses.

Chief Blanket Variant 

From 1870 on, the wider-than-tall format with primary banding often yielded patterns which do not conform to the first, second or third phase patterns and are often referred to as "Chief Variants."