A late classic Navajo Men’s Serape Blanket dating to circa 1865-1870 woven during or just after the Navajo’s internment at Bosque Redondo. This fine and tightly woven serape is comprised of raveled and hand spun wool yarns with reds and green being raveled bayeta yarns while the cream, and indigo blue are hand spun yarn. Navajo textiles that utilized blue and cream colors sparingly were common during and just after the Navajo internment at Bosque Redondo. Prior to this period in 1863, under General Carleton’s orders and led by Kit Carson, thousands of Navajo’s were displaced by Carson’s scorched earth campaign to force the surrender of the Navajo tribe. There homes and crops were burned and their cattle and sheep were killed. The Navajo’s were forced to march nearly three hundred miles homeland to a barren and desolate “reservation” in Eastern New Mexico. Without their sheep and in such a desolate land, the Navajo weavers relied heavily on unraveled yarn taken from tablecloths, blankets or yarns distributed only to the Navajo at Bosque Redondo from Fort Sumner supply post and no other place or time. This serape is a classic example from this period of circa 1896-1870’s. Provenance: This blanket has been in a single collection for nearly 50 years. Condition is very good with all four corners intact and no holes, the blanket would benefit from cleaning. As noted by Cameron Trading Post blankets from this period are a bittersweet testament to what the Navajo call “The Long Walk”, bitter because it reminds us of the unimaginable hardships the weaver and her people endured and sweet because the art of the weaver represents the dignity, resilience, and unquenchable heart of the people who would not succumb. Size is approximately 69 inches by 52 inches.