NAVAJO BLANKETS

[crazyphil]

I have been re-visiting Vintage Steel & Leather (pics) and
enjoying all the excellent photography of guns and gun leather.

digi-shots posted many beautiful photos in that thread. Some of
them are shown with a Navajo blanket. A Navajo symbol that is
similar, in design, to the Swastikas that were a symbol of Hitler's
Nazi regime from the 1930s til the end of WWII.

The Navajo symbol was sacred to them, but I believe they
stopped using it when the Nazis started.

Thirty or forty years ago, when I was travelling through Northern
Arizona, I bought an authentic Navajo blanket. I use it now for
the background of my office wall decor, with my replica guns and
vintage leather. (Photo below) My blanket does not have the
symbol that was similar to the swastika, except maybe half of
the symbol.

If anyone knows about the Navajo symbol and the use of a
similar symbol by the Nazis, please enlighten me. It would be
too bad if Hitler caused the Navajos to give up a sacred symbol.

 

[Onomea]

Phil, here’s a wikipedia article about the use of the symbol around the world. There’s a bit of info on Navajo use, too: Swastika - Wikipedia

In Japan, some folks are worried about its use to designate buddhist temples on maps causing unwelcome connotations for visitors during the Olympics: In Japan, a debate about swastikas takes on new urgency | The Outline

Really too bad this ancient, worldwide symbol got hijacked by the Nazis.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

A while back was on a Canyon deChelly tour.
About a dozen of us were in a Ubimog driven by a Super Neat Navajo named Daniel.
About half of the Tourists were Germans.
So one German kept asking about the swastikas. He either didn’t accept or didn’t understand Daniel’ explanation.
He kept bringing it up Until finally some of us tourists intervened.
This is another trip, this time I went in the Toledo torpedo.
When you come out West, Canyon deChelly is must see, IMO.
And it ain’t Shelly.
Think French, like Da Shay.

 

[Texas Star]

The Finns have used it, but backward.

Hitler and Himmler were students of the occult. It may go back many thousands of years. I certainly don't think it originated with Nazis, but is associated with them today, and Navajo blankets are victims of that popular feeling.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

As a Christian symbol the cross is a little later than you think! It shows up around 200-400 AD and can be + or X shaped (along with 1, 2, or 3 horizontal bars) Somewhere later, often thought post 1200 The occult symbol of a broken cross turned up, and in many forms! The Nazi swastika in a circle and a upright cross with the horizontal arms leaning against the base, also in a circle (today called a peace sign) are from those times called the dark ages. The Circle around the symbol is as important as the central symbol! (It has to do with containment and shielding of powerful forces.

The Buddhist and Navajo swastikas' have never been associated with a circle, and have nothing to do with Nazi usage, and vice versa.

(From a class I had in college dealing with Christian symbolism)

Ivan

 

[ron_c]

It was also a good luck symbol.

 

[Peak53]

If the Native Americans start giving us back blankets, I'd be a little concerned. Never mind the broken cross emblem. Remember the old smallpox infected blanket trick? They do.

 

[bigwheelzip]

If anyone knows about the Navajo symbol and the use of a similar symbol by the Nazis, please enlighten me.

During last summer's vacation, we visited a WWI memorial monument in a forest on the outskirts of Paris, France, not far from the palace at Versailles. It was built in 1926 by France to honor the Americans that joined the French Air Force in World War I, before the United States entered the war.

On the monument, I saw the insignia chosen by the Americans for their squadron, named La Fayette Escadrille, an image of native American Chief Sitting Bull. On the Chief's headdress was the emblem you mention. Obviously, this squadron's Sitting Bull insignia image predates the Nazi party, but it's entirely possible that many WWI era Germans, including Hitler, may have seen it, and perhaps copied part of it.

 

[Ogandydancer]

Very Interesting to say the least. I for one had no idea it went that far back in history. I did however know that most of the higher ranking around Hitler were students of the occult.

 

[wheelgun28]

I have some old hand tools that have the symbol cast into them. They were made way before WW2 and made in the USA.

USA: The Buffum Tool Company - Pro-Swastika

 

[SteveA]

My grandfather was a 1st lieutenant in the 42nd "Rainbow" Division during WWI. My Dad has his cane he carried as an officer. It has a number of swastikas carved in it, which according to my Dad, were good luck symbols. My grandfather died in 1933, when the Nazis were just coming to power.

 

[dmn57]

This caught my eye when recently viewing the Ken Burns series 'The Dust Bowl'. A search on the history of the symbol revealed it was indeed held in high esteem by many cultures and freely appropriated through the 1930's a sign of goodness.