Sewing With Nancy

Welcome to the Nancy's Corner segment. I'm Mary Mulari, guest host for this series. Our Nancy's Corner guest is a member of the Navajo Nation and pays tribute to her ancestors through quilting. Please welcome Susan Hudson, who joins us via Skype from Sorrel Sky Gallery in Durango, Colorado. Hello, Susan. You're going to introduce yourself in a unique way. Y't'h. My name is Susan Hudson. I'm born of...

speaking Navajo

That's our most unique introduction so far. The quilt that you have on display behind you has a lot of stories to tell. I wonder if you'd share with the viewers the meanings of the designs and the significance of your prize-winning quilt. What I did was, I wanted to honor my ancestors because of them going to the boarding school and how they learned how to quilt. So that's what I did. I wanted to turn that negative into a positive. What I also wanted to do was to show where I came from, that I came from --. He was one of our great leaders. Also, my three grandmothers that survived the Long Walk of the Navajos, that came back. One of my grandmas was the oldest documented Navajo weavers and --, they call him a master Navajo weaver. Mary Wheelwright built a museum around him in Santa Fe. Also, I have Mary Ann Foster, she's another master weaver. Then of course, there's my great-grandparents my grandparents, my mother, my children, my grandchildren and four other influential people. That's a lot to cover in one quilt. You also have horses. They're important, you said, in the Navajo creation story. Yes, they are. They're very important to us because everybody tells us that horses came with the Spaniards, and everything. But they came from our creation stories. They're the ones that bring the time of the day. The God, he rides the horses. When he rides the horses whatever horse he's riding is going to depend on if our days are cloudy or sunny or just beautiful all the time. Very interesting. I know that you also refer to this piece, this quilt, as being "ledger art." That's an interesting story of how ledgers I thought it sounded like old-fashioned spreadsheets.

both laugh

Tell us about ledger art. What happened was, mostly the Plains Indians are well known for, especially the ones that were prisoners of war at Fort Marion in Georgia. When you take away a person's way of life you know, like they had the buffalos and the people would draw. When you put them on reservations, or someplace you know, you adapt. They would get these ledgers and they would do the drawings on them. Little did they know that years later that they would be very valuable. What I did was, I have always liked ledger art but I just can't make even a straight stick person. I was challenged by a Cheyenne man. I was like, this Cheyenne man is challenging me. I'm a strong Navajo woman, so that's what I did. With the help of a corporal, Corporal --, he's Chippewa Cree. He's the one that did the horses for me. So, it just went from there. I had no plans. I had no patterns. I had nothing. It took me eight months to do. The second quilt that you wanted to share with us is called 29 Warriors. That is another interesting story of the ancestors from your Indian background. Well, what I originally did was I wanted to write my thank you letters to my grandfathers, the original 29 code talkers because when you look into their history they were in these boarding schools and they were told that they couldn't speak our language. But in reality, is when it came down to the time for war they went, and they served the country. They went to protect the

speaking Navajo

. They went to protect our lands. They used our beautiful language to save a nation. This was my thank-you letter to them because millions of people are alive because of them. A very interesting background from World War II. Yes. You're other quilt about the POW and MIA the Honoring Ledger Quilt that also has background from your ancestry. It's another ledger quilt? Yes, it is. In 1864, like I said, my three ancestors that were taken as prisoners of war to Fort Sumner. A couple generations later, in 1942, my two grandfathers Edward and James, they became POWs. They were on the Bataan Death March. James survived, Edward didn't. Susan, thank you so much for sharing the stories. There are many more to share. We're happy to have you here on Nancy's Corner. Okay. You can find more information about today's Nancy's Corner guest re-watch this show online and connect with Nancy at her website, nancyzieman.com. It's been a pleasure being the first guest host on Sewing with Nancy. Thank you for watching.