Artist: Sally Black

Materials: Sumac (Rhus trilobata)

ET513.F-4

Horses of the Sun Basket (1995)

Jóhonaaʼéí (Sun Carrier) rides his horses across the sky carrying the sun disk on his back. “They say that the sun is related to the horse, in the ceremony, that’s how it goes . . . I got it from listening to the medicine people,” says weaver Sally Black about her basket Horses of the Sun. Sally portrays horses as representatives of the four sacred directions near patches of blue water. The white horse represents the east, the blue horse the south, the yellow horse the west, and the black horse the north. In the center of the basket, Sally weaves a radiant sun. A Yé’ii (Diné god) encircles the outer rim.