Navajo weaver finishes two-year tunic for Tlingit-Navajo family

A seventh-generation Navajo weaver completed a two-year project creating a tunic in Navajo style for a Tlingit-Navajo family member, bridging two Indigenous weaving traditions at Celebration 2026 in Juneau on Thursday.

Rosie Taylor, from Indian Wells, Arizona, hand-carded, dyed, and handspun merino wool to create the tunic for Rico, whose family includes a grandson of Chilkat Thunderbird clan members who married into a Navajo family. Chilkat weaver Skin George reciprocated by weaving a nachen for Ricky boy, completing the piece on Thursday.

Taylor identified herself as a Kiaani clan member, born for Big Water, with Hanagahnee and Senju Kina as her other grandparents. She described the weaving process as raising a child. When finished, she talks to the weaving, sings for it, and prays for it. When weavings go to different homes, they come with her and know they are her child, she said.

The collaboration reflected a closer relationship between Tlingit and Navajo families through marriage, speakers said onstage.