Native American fans know Sally Black as one of the greatest living Navajo basket weavers. Her work is exhibited in museums and galleries in the southwest.
But she doesn’t weave today. She mourns a sudden and devastating loss.
Her Monument Valley home caught fire while she was 100 miles away delivering a basket to a customer in Farmington, New Mexico. It was just after lunch that she received a phone call with devastating news.
Your motor home was on fire.
“I said ‘what’ and ‘oh my god’,” said Sally in an interview with FOX 13, then asked about her boyfriend, “‘He was the one who was at home. Is he outside?’ and they said, ‘Nobody is out.’ “
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Her friend Ryan Thompson had been in the trailer that Ryan’s mother had told her at the scene.
“He died in the fire and I said, oh my god.”
The loss of Sally Black included all of the materials she used to weave baskets, which are sought after by collectors and curators internationally.
“I’ve lost everything I have and I just wipe my tears away and watch the trailer and I take a deep breath and I said, well, what can I do?” Said Sally.
Black uses sumac, which she and some volunteers harvest in the wild near Hanksville and Green River, Utah. The process of collecting, splitting, drying, and dyeing the materials takes up most of the year, while the winter months are spent weaving. The fire occurred when all the materials were stored in the trailer and ready to become masterpieces to be used in sacred ceremonies and hanging on the walls of museums and galleries.
If you’d like to help, Sally Black’s sister Agnes set up a gofundme page to help her get back on her feet.
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