Melissa Plantz
MORE THAN A STORE
C The family behind the treasures at the Gordon Collection BY JESSE JAMES McTIGUE
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orina Gordon sits opposite her father, Bill, in an alcove at The Gordon Collection. A handwoven Navajo rug hangs above. In the store’s front, the morning sun playfully bounces off the silver jewelry. The handcrafted items surrounding them — jewelry, rugs and baskets — make up The Gordon Collection, items Bill, with wife Ginny, started curating over 50 years ago. In 1969, adventurous and newly married, Bill and Ginny settled in Rough Rock, an Arizona town in the Navajo Nation, where they found teaching jobs at the Rough Rock Demonstration School. Bill explains that it was the first American Indian-run school in the nation. The children were taught the first three years by a Navajo teacher and learned English as a second language. Then they took English classes from a teacher like Bill, who
was assisted by a Navajo aide. “We were idealistic, young, white kids going out there,” he remarks. “We learned to practice a different culture, but the thing we learned is people are people everywhere.” For Bill and Ginny, an unexpected outcome of this time was a deep appreciation of and connection to the culture, which was often expressed in art. Through the school and community, the couple met Navajo weavers and silversmiths. They were intrigued by the processes for silversmithing and, especially, weaving. Says Bill, “We saw the amount of work that went into weaving a rug and the meaning weaving has. We became interested in the connection Navajo women have with their loom.” Bill came to understand weaving as a religious practice. He describes it as a way for Navajo women to maintain equilibrium in an unbal-
