Fort Lewis College cancels contentious Navajo weaving lecture

Fort Lewis College cancelled a presentation in the Life Long Learning Lecture Series about Navajo weaving. This, after the acting president received emails of preemptive opposition from the public, according to the lecturer.

A screenshot showing that Fort Lewis College cancelled a lecture.

Specifically, the talk by Jackson Clark II was going to be about the efforts made by traders working with Navajo weavers to save the art form back in the 1880s and beyond. The presentation was canceled in the morning of the day when the lecture was scheduled to occur (4/17/2025).

Clark is the owner of Toh-Atin Gallery in Durango, Colorado. The business opened in 1957 and specializes in quality Native American-made Southwestern arts and crafts.

Fort Lewis College cancels Jackson’s lecture, and he responds with a newsletter

This is what it said:

“If you were planning to attend, you get the night off!

My talk, which was going to focus on the efforts made by some traders working with Navajo weavers to save the art form back in the 1880s and beyond, was canceled by the acting college president this morning.

Apparently, he had received several emails from people who interpreted the title of the talk to mean, “The great white traders saved the Indians” or some silly thing like that.

He asked me to postpone the talk, sit down with activists, community members, and students, and explain what I would say to get their approval. Then, we would reschedule the talk.

I had to decline. This is an attempt at censorship. This was never going to be a political talk; it was a historical lecture similar to the talks I have given at museums and universities around the country. To be brief, after the Navajo were returned from their imprisonment by the U. S. Government, which was a terrible time for the Diné people, they were given annuities of white man’s clothing, thousands of yards of material, needles, thread, and blankets.

Navajo women were making dresses from calico, men were wearing denim and woolen pants and shirts, and the use of the Navajo wearing blankets was declining. For ten years, the use of the Navajo loom declined. To simplify it, the traders collaborated with the weavers, who utilized their exceptional skills to create floor rugs, and then found a market for these products.

These are great stories about how the different trading post operators worked with the artists to design and market these weavings. The market for Navajo rugs, driven by trading post operators, increased from $30,000 in 1890 to $350,000 in 1903 and to $700,000 by 1914.

We will reschedule this talk for a future date somewhere. Watch the newsletter for details.
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Toh-Atin Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Sunday. The website is always open for shopping!

We’re also available by phone to help you make that special purchase! Give us a call at 970-247-8277.

Jackson Clark II”

“I was talking to Steve the Acting President, and I said Steve, I have been criticized a lot of times for things that that I’ve said in my life, but I’ve never been criticized or shut down for something that I hadn’t said yet,” Clark said in an interview about getting cancelled. “I didn’t give the speech and they were all over me.”

Subsequently, Fort Lewis College President Steve Schwartz failed to respond to my request for an interview. I left him a voicemail on 4/18/25.

“It’s not right to censor somebody, no matter what they’re talking about, unless they’re trying to hurt somebody or incite violence,” said Clark. “It’s not something that an institution of higher education ought to do.”

Moreover, Clark said that the people that got him cancelled were the same ones that protested against the cartoonish chief sign depicting a Native American in the parking lot of his Toh-Atin Gallery. His lecture getting cancelled was not about his speech, he said.

“They were trying to use the college to get back at me because we have that sign,” Clark said, adding that they accused him of being racist. “It’s a small group of militant-type folks.”

Toh-Atin Gallery’s history of charity to tribal people

In contrast to the accusations of being racist, Clark said that he and his business have a history of charity towards tribal people.

In addition to Toh-Atin Gallery being one of the few places in town to sell the rugs, art and crafts that are made by tribal people is the charity that they bring to the Navajo Reservation.

“The weavers we work with, the artists we work with, these people are my friends,” said Clark. “And we do everything we can to pay as much as we can for items like that to resell them. I can’t tell you how many weddings, funerals, college tuitions, loans for broken cars, people that are having health problems. We look at these people as our community. We reach out all the time to try and make their lives better.”

“There are a lot of these weavers that live south of here in conditions that are probably worse than Afghanistan,” Clark said.

“Every winter we fill trailers full of firewood that our customers and employees chop and we take it down for those guys so they have firewood. Because that’s how they heat their homes,” said Clark

“We do clothing drives to take,” he said. “This year we took at least three trailers worth of clothes and warm coats, shoes and stuff like that down to the chapter houses where they were distributed. Catholic charities distribute them.”

Threats of violence against Jackson Clark II, then Fort Lewis College cancels

In response to the prospect of a different viewpoint existing at Fort Lewis College, one person on Instagram made threats of violence against the Clark and his business.

A person with the screen name Nabaahii Bizhiil appeared to have threatened to cut his head off.

Secondly, the same person incited people to burn down the trading post.

Thirdly, the same individual incited students to throw tomatoes and stones at Clark.

Additionally, I requested copies of the emails that were sent to the Acting President Steve Schwartz prior to the lecture. It’s unclear how many there were or when they will provide them to me.

When I receive them I will add them to this post.

#FortLewisCollege
#censorship
#LifeLongLearningLectureSeries