Clara Sherman
Navajo Weaving
Clara (Nezbah) Sherman was born to Hashtl'ishnii (Mud clay People—maternal clan) and born for Nasshashi Dine' (Bear
Enemies—Tewa clan, paternal clan) "over here, it's not too far from here, north side of this road, on the other side there is a wash there...near the Toadlena-Newcomb area" in 1911. Born Nezbah Gould, she had ten siblings including an adopted sister. Quietly, but with certainty, she recounts on her fingers Chee, James, Lee, Frank, Jay (named after her father Jay Gould), an adopted sister who passed away, Fannie, Yazzie, a baby who passed away, and Rebecca. "She is still kickin'," Clara laughed. She speaks fondly of her family, her sister-companion, Yazzie (Blackhorse), and their childhood. They herded sheep and cattle for their family, who also raised corn and watermelons. Yazzie and Clara would grind corn in the morning for their meals, and they made jerky. They were very close and did everything together. Both sisters were distraught when authorities came and took Clara off to boarding school at Toadlena. "She cried," Clara said of Yazzie. Clara was married to John Sherman (now deceased) at an early age, and they had several children. Grandchildren now bless her family.
Before she was thirteen, Clara and her sister were interested in weaving. Clara relates, "When we would herd sheep, the wool would stick to the barbed wire when the sheep passed through the fences. Yazzie told me to hide the wool carders under my coat and go out. At the time we were herdin' sheep over there at the place where I was born. We would card our wool over there in secret. And the same thing we did was
hide a spindle from my [older] sister. She didn't know that we used it. And my sister [Yazzie] already know how and she taught me how to spin. We put up a rug like this size
[approximately two feet high] on those bushes, and we covered it up so no one would know. [Yazzie] sewed a flour sack together and we covered it up with that." Clara's mom did want her to learn how to weave but she thought it was important to learn process. "She'd say, 'card
the wool so I can spin. I want you to spin but I know you won't do good. Of course you can card good,' she'd always say. 'Take those cockle berries out o'the wool,' she'd say, 'so I can wash it.' I would watch my mom weave and she'd talk to me about it-the way she'd put her design in, but at first she didn't know how to put the wool in between the warp. Somehow my older sister learned it. My older sister, she was stingy with her weaving and spinning and carding. Boy! She... So when she'd go away we undo it! Then we did it over again, but she'd always know it!" Clara lamented with a mischievous look in her eye and laughter in her voice. "She'd say, 'you've been foolin' around with my rug again. Keep your dirty hands off it,' she'd tell me! But I learned from how she did it. Some would call her and ask how to put those wools between the warps. She taught a lot, but she didn't care about us! My mother learned a lot from her. My sister's designs are good."
Clara says that her rug designs are similar to her older sister's and her mother's. The family weaves the Two Grey Hills patterns. When asked if she ever copied designs from magazines or other sources, the answer was a resounding "No! That I don't like to do! My designs come from my head, and I only do designs that come from my head. I don't feel like doin' other designs." Clara has taught her daughter Angie (Silentman) to weave and her granddaughter (Angie's daughter) also weaves. Clara says, "when you weave, everything comes back to you and you feel fresh again."
Images: [Bottom] Clara
Sherman tending her sheep.
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