Medicine Bow – a New Blanket and More

River Inspiration

This beautiful new blanket was inspired by the Medicine Bow River in Wyoming.

Pendleton blanket: Medicine Bow

Medicine Bow

The Medicine Bow River rises deep in Wyoming’s Snowy Range to flow 167 miles on its way to the Medicine Bow Mountains. Native tribes traveled to the area to harvest mountain mahogany for especially fine bows. Stands of wood alternate with bands of arrows, meeting in the center to show the Medicine Bow River crossing, an important link between East and West.

Take a look at the beautiful Medicine Bow River!

The Medicine Bow River, photo by Colby Thomas
Photo by Colby Thomas on Unsplash

The river is a beauty, but it isn’t the only Medicine Bow in Wyoming. Far from it.

Medicine Bow Peak

The highest point of Snowy Range –and the highest point in southern Wyoming–is Medicine Bow Peak (12,018 ft). Intrepid (and hopefully experienced) hikers reach the mountain’s peak on a four-mile trail that features numerous switchbacks and plenty of loose rock. It’s part of the Medicine Bow Mountains, near Laramie, Wyoming.

Medicine Bow National Forest

The river, the peak, and the mountains are part of an enormous preserve called The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland (also known as the MBRTB). The MBRTB is composed of nearly 2.9 million acres in northern Colorado and eastern Wyoming. The entire complex of mountains ranges, grasslands, and vast unspoiled landscapes spans two states and over a dozen counties.

Medicine Bow, the Town

There’s also a tiny town in Carbon County, Wyoming that bears the Medicine Bow name. With a population of only 200 to 300 people, Medicine Bow has maintained a post office since 1869. It is home to the famed Virginian Hotel. In the past, the town hosted outlaws like Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, who committed the Wilcox Train Robbery just a few miles away from Medicine Bow.

Medicine Bow is a beautiful place and a beautiful pattern that is showcased in this wool jacket.

A man wearing a Pendleton jacket

More information at pendleton-usa.com:

Blanket

Jacket

Last Chance Blankets for January, 2023

Now is the time!

Our USA mills in Oregon and Washington run three shifts a day to keep up with the demand for our wool blankets. Each year, we have to retire blankets to make room on the loom for our newest designs. Stock is low on the following blankets, so if you have been considering one, now is the time!

Child-sized Blankets

Pendleton Moon Dance child-size blanket

Moon Dance

The Menominee tribe of the Great Lakes region tells a tale of Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Brother Sun set out on a long hunt and did not return, causing Sister Moon to worry. She searched far and wide for her brother, waxing and waning for twenty days until she, too, disappeared. But Sister Moon always returns after four nights of darkness to light the night with her soft beams. Sister Moon’s search for Brother Sun is portrayed in this pattern of a cloud-obscured moon dancing gently over water.

This peaceful child-sized blanket was introduced in Fall 2020. It is 32″ x 44″, and napped for cozy story times. It also looks beautiful draped over the back of a chair. See it here: Moon Dance

Star Guardian

Pendleton Star Guardian child-sized blanket.

Crossed arrows stand for brotherhood and the setting aside of conflicts. A peaceful evening has come to the prairie. It is time to light the fires and draw together in the warmth of the fire circle. As logs crackle and flames flicker, stories rise on the night air. Stories of bravery and victory in battle. Stories of stealth and bounty in the hunt. Stories of tricksters and their clever magic. As they share their legends, the People are safe and warm in their tepees. Above it all shines Bear, the great guardian of the night skies.

This charming child-sized blanket was introduced in Fall of 2017. It is 32″ x 44″, and softly napped for soft snuggles, cuddles, and naps. It also makes a fine wall-hanging. See it here: Star Guardian

Robe-sized Blankets

Alamosa

The Alamosa blanket by Pendleton - red, beige, blue

“Of a time long ago, these things are said.” The Navajo language is spoken like a poem, and tells of the first beings, the Air-Spirit People, who emerged in the First World. There, a red island held the Insect People; ants, dragonflies, beetles, and a dwelling called House of Red Rock. To the east, a stepped pattern shows the Place Where the Waters Crossed, home to the sunrise. In the center, blue streams converge, then flow toward each of the sacred Four Directions. 

This spectacular robe-sized blanket (twin) was introduced in Fall of 2020. It is unnapped, so the smooth beauty of the pattern shines through, and is finished with a whipstitch binding. See it here: Alamosa

Crescent Bay

Pendleton Crescent Bay blanket

Crescent Bay, near Laguna Beach in southern California, is part of the California’s 810 miles of ocean coastline. Waves of diamonds represent the waters of the bay, where divers can see an array of sea life; kelp gardens, fish, seals, sea lions–even sharks. Above the bay floats the marine layer, an inversion created when the cool ocean meets warm air. Sometimes clear, sometimes foggy, the marine layer lingers along the coast, gently dispelling inland heat with the cooling power of the Pacific Ocean.

This California-themed robe-sized blanket was introduced in the Spring of 2020. It is unnapped, so the pattern definition is excellent, and it’s finished with a wool binding. See it here: Crescent Bay

Bedding Collection (multiple sizes)

Alta Lakes

Pendleton Alta lakes blanket, shown in Queen size

In the high, clear air of the San Juan Mountains, three alpine lakes nestle against Palmyra Peak. This is Southwestern Colorado’s Alta Lakes recreation area, home to hiking, fishing, boating and paddle boarding. Nearby is a tiny ghost town named Alta, a mining center in the 1800s and early 1900s. The evening sky is lit by glowing bands of sunset colors that touch the peaks of the San Juan Mountains, surrounding the three glowing Alta Lakes.

This vibrant blanket design was introduced as a bedding collection in Fall of 2021. The photo above shows the Queen size. It is unnapped for vibrant pattern definition, and is finished with a whipstitch binding. See the collection here: Alta Lakes

Bedding Groups – Something Special from Pendleton

Dress up your bed

Each year, we choose a select group of blankets to offer as bedding groups. This means we will offer multiple sizes in these blankets, usually including Queen, and sometimes up to King. We also weave special fabrics for coordinating pillow shams that are (usually) reversible. This gives customers the opportunity to fully dress a bed in Pendleton fabrics.

New patterns

This year, we added some new patterns to our bedding collection offering.

Smith Rock

Pendleton Smith Rock bedding group.

Smith Rock – The towering face of Smith Rock overlooks a bend in Oregon’s Crooked River, challenging climbers from around the world to scale its heights. Considered by many to be the birthplace of American sport climbing, Smith Rock State Park offers several thousand climbs, many of them bolted, in its 650 acres of high peaks, deep river canyons, and hiking trails like Misery Ridge. This pattern, based on a traditional nine-element blanket, alternates the park’s peaks with the many paths traveled by hikers and climbers.

Lost Trail

Pendleton Lost Trail bedding group.

Lost Trail – In September of 1805, the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery struggled to find a trail through the Bitterroot Mountains. Their travails gave name to Lost Trail Pass, crossing the Idaho/Montana border. Two peaked bands represent the Columbia River Basin drainages divided by Lost Trail: Bitterroot Clark-Fork to the north, and Salmon to the south. The middle band represents the Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuge, which provides crucial winter habitat to fish, fowl, and mammals large and small.

And customer favorite Wyeth Trail, now offered in a Slate colorway.

Pendleton Wyeth Trail bedding group.

Wyeth Trail – In 1834, stories of the Western frontier drew a Massachusetts inventor named Nathaniel Wyeth to the Oregon territories. The Wyeth Trail did not lead its namesake to fame and fortune, but his path endured to become part of the Oregon Trail’s 2,170 miles. With a balanced pattern of peaks, this pattern shows a perilous trail passing through dry plains, fertile valleys, and pristine rivers, surrounded on both sides by the beautiful mountain ranges of Oregon.

These join other bedding group favorites like Los Ojos, White Sands, San Miguel, and more. See them here: Bedding Groups

Another option

If your favorite blanket isn’t part of this group, check out our Pendleton Eco-Wise® Wool shams in solid colors. See them here: Solid Shams

Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool shams, arranged with Eco-Wise Wool blankets.

These solid color shams coordinate beautifully with our Eco-Wise blankets, and the colors work with many of our jacquard patterns. If you have questions about exact matching, call the Pendleton Home Store in Portland’s Pearl District. We have swatches, blankets, and are happy to help you over the phone or in person.

Colder weather is finally on the way. It’s the perfect season to warm up with wool. Visit Pendleton-usa.com to see all the possibilities.

Pendleton Born in Oregon logo

Resting Place by Logan Maxwell Hagege

Resting Place by Logan Maxwell Hagege

Pendleton is proud to present a new blanket in our Artist Collection, “Resting Place” by Logan Maxwell Hagege.

Pendleton Resting Place blanket

RESTING PLACE

A well-worn hat on a split-rail fence offers a moment of respite for the rider who hung it there, as its rounded shape offers a centered counterbalance to the horizontal sweep of mountain buttes and fence rails behind it. Logan Maxwell Hagege is a Los Angeles-based contemporary artist whose modern visions of the American West use repeating shapes to create a visual narrative for each composition, distilling shapes to their essence while celebrating their complexity.

Learn more about this blanket at Pendleton-usa.com. Resting Place

Inspiration

Here is the painting from which this design was adapted.

Hagege creates works that are celebrated for their harmonious composition, texture, and depth. This blanket offers a rare opportunity to own a work by one of the most celebrated contemporary artists of the American West. You can learn more about his art at his website: LOGAN MAXWELL HAGEGE

Enjoy a video of his “Dear Old Western Sky” exhibition at the Maxwell Alexander Gallery here:

“Resting Place” joins “A Horse Called Paint” by Judd Thompson in Pendleton’s Artists Collection. Learn more here: “A Horse Called Paint

Pendleton "Born in Oregon" logo

Pendleton Preservation Series

What is the Preservation Series?

These USA-made wool blankets are part of our Preservation Series, a unique collection that recreates historic weavings from across the Americas. Pendleton designers collaborate with museum curators and private collectors to select noteworthy work, establish provenance, and attribute historical textiles to the original weavers when possible. The descriptions of dyes, materials, sizes and age are drawn from curator notes on the original weavings. Each wool blanket is expertly dyed, woven and hand-finished in our American mills.

A portion of sales from each blanket helps fund Native American art and education programming and outreach at the Fort Lewis College Foundation and the Center for Southwest Studies.

Please note: many of the descriptions below refer to the curator notes on the original weavings. Pendleton’s versions are made of 82% wool/18% cotton, and are 64″ x 80″ unless otherwise noted.

PS01 – Early Navajo (Diné) Sarape, 1800-1850 

Pendleton Preservation Series blanket PS01 face (front).

This very early weaving contemporary with the Ute-style First Phase Chief blanket. This unusual early sarape combined the simple striped and terraced stepped design elements in use at the time without incorporating red bayeta yarns. Woven of indigo-dyed blue, indigo with vegetal-dyed green, and natural white hand-spun churro wool yarns.  The color scheme suggests a Rio Grande Valley influence. Based on an original weaving in The Durango Collection®  (DC-NC-43), Center of Southwest Studies Collection #2000:03007

Pendleton Preservation Series blanket PS01 reverse.

This design is the first in the Preservation Series to be offered as a bedding collection in multiple sizes. Choices are Twin (or robe), Queen, and King, with matching standard-sized shams offered as well. These blankets are completely made in the USA of virgin wool on a cotton warp.

See more information on the blanket here: PS01 

PS02 – Navajo (Diné) Child’s Blanket, 1870

Pendleton Preservation Series blanket PS02 face (front).

These weavings are referred to as child’s blankets because of their small size, complex patterning, and tight weave. This blanket is a wonderful example of the late Classic Period, and incorporates Spider Woman crosses in the design. The variation in the red color comes from red trade cloth that weavers unraveled and respun. Other colors are handspun gray and white wool and vegetal-and-indigo-dyed yarns. Based on an original weaving in The Durango Collection® (DC-NC-51), Center of Southwest Studies Collection #2000.03007

Pendleton Preservation Series blanket PS02 reverse.

Though the original weaving on which we’ve based this blanket is referred to as a “child-size blanket,” the Pendleton version is woven in our traditional robe size of 64″ x 80″. The crosses represent Spider Woman, a powerful teacher and benefactor in Navajo legends who taught the art of weaving to the Dine/Navajo people. Her traditional home is atop the Spider Rock formation in the Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

See more information on the blanket here: PS02 

PS03

Pendleton Preservation Series blanket PS03 face (front).

This unusual early striped Zuni blanket incorporates design elements found in Spanish-American weavings from the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico. A combination of simple bands with central diamond and stepped designs was woven of handspun natural gray, dyed greens, indigo-dyed blue, plied commercial yarns, and red “Bayeta” wool. This design is based on an original weaving in The Durango Collection®, Center of Southwest Studies Collection.

Pendleton Preservation Series blanket PS03 reverse.

Bayeta is a red woolen flannel that has been raveled and respun. According to the Donald Ellis Museum website:

The term “bayeta” refers to bolts of machine-woven red flannel. Bayeta also refers to red yarns raveled from bolts of red flannel. By 1830, Navajo weavers were accomplished at dying handspun yarns with indigo but lacked the ability to dye handspun yarns with cochineal, which produced a deep red color in woolen yarns. The weavers’ only sources of red yarns were the yarns they raveled from bolts of red flannel imported either from England or Spain. Known among the Navajo and the Spanish as “baize” or “bayeta,” and among Anglo- Americans as “red stroud” or “red trade cloth,” red flannel was used for garment insulation by Anglo- American and Spanish-American settlers.

You can read more of that museum’s fascinating history of Bayeta yarn here: Donald Ellis Museum 

See more information on the blanket here: PS03 

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

Bridge City, a new blanket for 2021

Celebrating Portland

Portland is a city divided by a river, and united by bridges. Because the Willamette River divides our city neatly into East and West, and because there are wonderful places to visit on each side, a Portlander spends a lot of time traveling these bridges by foot, by bicycle, and by car. You learn each bridge by heart; how to get on it, how not to get on it, where it will take you, and the particular challenges of crossing it.

If you’re driving, the grids of the Hawthorne pull your car from side to side until you learn the trick of speeding up, rather than slowing down. The soaring upper deck of the Marquam, with its spectacular views of downtown, isn’t a place to sightsee, thanks to its hectic lane merges. The lower deck offers the most beautiful views of Waterfront Park in the city, especially during the Rose Festival. Whether or not you like to go to the Fun Center, you can’t help but be charmed by the lights of this huge carnival as you head west.

The Gothic splendor of the St. John’s Bridge, designed by famed engineer and polymath David B. Steinman, is the most majestic of Portland’s bridges. But the dramatic arches of the Fremont Bridge certainly give it a run, as far as dramatic beauty. At the other end of the Willamette River’s path through Portland, the Sellwood Bridge, rebuilt in 2016, was always Portland’s most controversial bridge. It was built in a hurry in 1925, and eventually deemed unsafe for bus and truck traffic. The new Sellwood bridge is broader, safer, and friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists.

Fun fact: The twelve bridges that span the Willamette are all different types of bridge. You can read the full list–and learn about their construction–on Wikipedia: Portland Bridges

The Blanket

2021 is a perfect year to celebrate building bridges, isn’t it? Here is Pendleton’s beautiful new “Bridge City” blanket, available now at pendleton-usa.com.

Bridge City, a new blanket by Pendleton, shows bridges spanning the Willamette River

Bridge City

A dozen bridges span the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. Each bridge is a different type of bridge. The oldest, the Hawthorne Bridge, is the oldest vertical-lift bridge operating in the USA. The newest, Tilikum Crossing, is named for Native Americans who have always lived along the Willamette. In this breathtaking new blanket, a sunrise behind Mt. Hood lights the St. Johns Bridge (suspension), the Fremont Bridge (tied-arch), and the Steel Bridge (lift-span) as they work with nine others to join the Portland’s east and west sides.Above them rises Mt. Hood, a silent, sleeping volcano that keeps watch over “Bridge City.” 

See more information: Bridge City

Read more about Tilikum Crossing: Portland’s Newest Bridge

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

Hotel Unwind Sapporo and Pendleton

Beautiful blankets, beautiful rooms

Our friends in Japan shared these beautiful photos from Hotel Unwind in Sapporo, Japan. Their rustic-luxe guest rooms feature Pendleton blankets. Travel is still a dream for many of us right now, but we thought our readers would enjoy dreaming about these gorgeous rooms.

Star Watchers

A  luxurious and rustic room at Hotel Unwind in Sapporo, Japan, featuring a Pendleton Star Watchers blanket.

Native Americans have practiced astronomy since ancient times to predict the arrival of the brightest stars. In Wyoming and Canada, mysterious medicine wheels have been found that track the rising of Aldebaran, Rigel, and Sirius. In the Central Plains, the Pawnee people honored the Pleiades Cluster and believed the Pole star was a protective chief who shone highest in the night sky. Their villages were planned with an eye toward astronomy, dedicating one corner of their village to the Evening Star.

Chief Joseph

Another lodge-themed room at Hotel Unwind in Sapporo, Japan, featuring a Pendleton Chief Joseph blanket.
Another room at Hotel Unwind in Sapporo, Japan, featuring Pendleton Chief Joseph blankets and pillows.

First woven in the 1920s, this USA-made wool blanket has been one of our most popular designs ever since. Chief Joseph led the Nez Perce tribe native to northeastern Oregon in the late 1800s. Widely admired for protecting his people and speaking the truth, he is honored with this design, symbolizing bravery. Bold arrowheads represent the chief’s courage, strength and integrity.

White Sands

A room at Hotel Unwind in Sapporo, Japan, featuring a White Sands Pendleton blankets and pillow shams.

Shifting dunes of shining white crystal rise from the Tularosa Basin at New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument. Erosion from the surrounding mountains constantly replenishes the world’s largest gypsum dunefield, encompassing 275 square miles. During the day, the dunes shine white against the blue sky. At sunset, the sands glow with vibrant hues of twilight, while desert flora—yucca, cholla, rice grass and more – reach toward the last rays of the setting sun.

You’ll see more Pendleton products in the spa, and on the hotel staff.
At the Hotel Unwind spa, a row of beautiful Pendleton spa towels await pampered guests.
The Hotel Unwind staff in their custom Pendleton wool shirts.

Learn more about Hotel Unwind here: HOTEL UNWIND

2020 Blankets with Stories to Tell

New Blankets Have Arrived

This year will be one that generates many stories, and 2020 is not over yet. In this very unusual year, we will keep bringing you beautiful wool blankets that have their own stories to tell. Here are some of our favorites, along with their legends.

The Alamosa blanket by Pendleton - red, beige, blue

Alamosa

“Of a time long ago, these things are said.” The Navajo language is spoken like a poem, and tells of the first beings, the Air-Spirit People, who emerged in the First World. There, a red island held the Insect People; ants, dragonflies, beetles, and a dwelling called House of Red Rock. To the east, a stepped pattern shows the Place Where the Waters Crossed, home to the sunrise. In the center, blue streams converge, then flow toward each of the sacred Four Directions. 

This is one of our most popular introductions this year. See it here: Alamosa

Juniper Mesa blanket by Pendleton - beige diamond designs

Juniper Mesa

Thanks to deep taproots, western junipers thrive where other trees fail, scattered across mesa tops in the deserts of the Southwest. Known for their twisting, mystical shapes and long life—some live over a thousand years—junipers produce aromatic berries used by Puebloans since ancient times as an herbal remedy. In this design, western junipers offer shade, sustenance and habitat to desert wildlife, shown as arrows that pass below, through and over branches.

This Nine Element blanket is a favorite among our design teams. See it here: Juniper Mesa

Saddle Mountain blanket by Pendleton - gold, purple, blue and

Saddle Mountain

Saddle Mountain is a scenic peak in the Oregon Coast Range, and the tallest mountain in Oregon’s Clatsop County. It is also one of the most beautiful places in Oregon to watch the sunrise. Bold blocks of warm colors evoke the rising sun in a design derived from early strip quilt patterns. In the center, a row of stylized stars evoke the planets Mercury and Venus, sometimes called Morning Stars, as they rise on a new day.

With its bold colors and quilt-inspired design, this blanket makes a strong statement. See it here: Saddle Mountain

Thunderbird-mountain-front

Thunderbird Mountain

The Menominee of Northern Wisconsin tell of a great mountain that floats in the western sky. Here dwell the Thunderbirds, messengers of the Sun and controllers of the weather. These magnificent flying creatures delight in battles, and compete to accomplish deeds of greatness and heroism. They cause the rain and hail storms that can save crops, or ruin them. Their valor holds back the Misikinubik, giant horned snakes that might overrun the earth if not for the Thunderbirds.

See it here: Thunderbird Mountain

This blanket celebrates ancient legends with striking geometry. And because this one has such a striking reverse, here is the other side of Thunderbird Mountain. Which side do you like more? Reversibility is one of the benefits of blankets woven on jacquard looms; one blanket, two looks.

Thunderbird-mountain-back

You can get more information and see the reverses of all these blankets at http://www.pendleton-usa.com.

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

Making Room on the Loom: Retiring blankets for 2020

Retiring blankets for 2020

Pendleton has been telling stories with our blankets since the first blanket mill opened in 1909. Each year, certain Pendleton blanket designs are retired. These designs are all available at pendleton-usa.com in limited quantities. Is one of these stories yours?

PAINTED HILLS

Pendleton Painted Hills blanket

Rising from the dry plains of Eastern Oregon, bare earth undulates in folds of scarlet, ochre, and yellow. These are the Painted Hills, whose brilliant stripes inspired this design and were created by oxidized mineral deposits in layers of volcanic ash. Adventurers who want to take a road trip into the past can see the hills, visit the nearby John Day Fossil beds and explore the ghost towns of this remote part of Oregon’s landscape.

Learn more here: Painted Hills Blanket

BIGHORN

Pendleton Bighorn blanket

Straddling the borders between Wyoming and Montana, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is home to spectacular canyons, clear blue waterways and countless wildlife. In 1825, the Bighorn River called famed mountain man Jim Bridger to build a raft of driftwood and ride it through the foaming rapids. Part of the river was dammed to create Bighorn Lake, but the spectacular canyon it carved remains, named for the Bighorn sheep that travel its rocky, treacherous paths. Located in Montana and Wyoming, about one third of the park unit is located on the Crow Indian Reservation. One quarter of the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range lies within the Bighorn Canyon Recreation Area.

Learn more here: Bighorn blanket

TURQUOISE RIDGE

Pendleton Turquoise Ridge blanket

Turquoise is known as the “fallen sky stone.” Prized for its beauty in colors that range from white to aqua to deepest green, turquoise has been used for amulets, beads, jewelry, carvings and more for ten thousand years. Legends of the Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo and Apache nations mention turquoise. In one legend, a tremendous drought brought great suffering to the People of the Earth. When the skies finally opened and shed rain on the People, they rose up to sing, dance and shed tears of joy. Their grateful tears mixed with the rain and seeped into Mother Earth to become Sky Stone.

Learn more here: Turquoise Ridge blanket

BUTTERFLY

Pendleton Butterfly blanket - front view

Sitting Bull challenged us all “to put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.” Sitting Bull College and the American Indian College Fund memorialize his efforts and echo his belief that education can transform the future. We honor Sitting Bull’s legacy with flower and butterfly designs similar to those on his regalia.  A caterpillar’s transition to butterfly mirrors the transformative power of education—a fitting remembrance for such a visionary leader.  Created exclusively for the American Indian College Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps fund scholarships for Native American students and tribal colleges. Your purchase helps support their honorable mission.

Learn more here: Butterfly blanket

Pendleton Butterfly blanket-reverse view

 

Pendleton label with bald eagle: "Pendleton since 1863 Highest Quality Made in the USA."

Pendleton’s Newest Legendary Blanket – Rodeo Sisters

Pendleton Legendary Series blanket, Rodeo Sisters, held up by two people standing behind it.

Pendleton’s Legendary Series

Each year, we add a new design to this series honoring Native American traditions, legends, and culture. These collectible blankets are symbols of the mutual respect between Pendleton and our first customers. For 2019, we are proud to introduce a blanket designed by Native American Artist Apolonia Susana Santos (1954-2006).

Rodeo Sisters

Front view of "Rodeo Sisters" blanket

Four women draped in blankets stand in a line at sunset in a design by the late artist and activist, Apolonia Susana Santos. Their blankets shine with abalone, quills, small bells and dentalium shells, lifting to reveal moccasins and tooled Western boots. Each hat is uniquely adorned with a band and feathers. This combination of traditional and contemporary delighted the artist, who finished this work and exclaimed, “My sisters are as well-dressed as anyone who shops on Rodeo Drive.”

See more information about the USA-made blanket here (new tab): RODEO SISTERS BLANKET

 

The Artist

Ms. Santos standing in front of a canvas.

Image courtesy of Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie for the First People’s Fund. Learn more about First People’s Fund at (new tab):   https://www.firstpeoplesfund.org/

Ms. Santos (Tygh/Yakima) was a Painter, Serigrapher, Sculptor, Writer and Activist. Her use of rich colors, textures and natural materials created vibrant and dynamic works of art. Her goal was to illuminate historic and contemporary Indigenous life, to bring it forward as a living force.

Susana’s art and her activism were inextricably linked.  She worked tirelessly to preserve Sovereign Traditional fishing rights. As a speaker, she encouraged Native youth to “Remember Who You Are” through writings, public speaking, marches and shows.

Here is the original work on which the blanket is based. Ms. Santos worked with more colors than our looms allow in a blanket, but we love how the design translated. As a note—the artist intended for the word to be pronounced “Ro-DAY-oh,” like the famous shopping district in Beverley Hills.

The original artwork, "Rodeo Sisters," by Susana Santos. All Rights Reserved.

Rodeo Sisters by Susana Santos. All rights reserved.

The Mug

A blanket-wrapped woman's hands holding the Rodeo Sisters mug.

This work’s bright colors and charming graphics worked perfectly on our oversized Pendleton mug. It’s irresistible. And since it’s that time of year, it also makes a perfect gift for the sisters in your life, whether born or chosen.

See more information about the mug here (new tab): RODEO SISTERS MUG

For more Information on the Artist

Ms. Santos’ legacy is a strong one, and friends and loved ones keep it alive with a website. Visit it here for a more complete look at her life, work, and activism. (new tab): Susana Santos