Clarenda Begay, curator at the Navajo Nation Museum, points to Chief Manuelito's wife Juanita, center, in an 1874 photo wearing the biil when she was with a Navajo delegation that traveled to Washington to talk with President Ulysses Grant.



(Times photo - Paul Natonabah) Navajo Nation Museum curator Clarenda Begay, right, and Angie McGrew, conservator from Autry National Center in Los Angeles, carefully fold Juanita's biil while the family members watch.







Wearing a latex glove, Jenny Nez carefully padded the blanket dress that once belonged to her great-great-great-grandmother Juanita.

"One last time," Nez said as she patted the biil. Then she patted her heart.

Nez was one of five descendants of Chief Manuelito and his wife, Juanita, who were on hand Oct. 26 to watch the return of Juanita's dress to the Autry National Center in Los Angeles.

The dress had been on display at the Navajo Nation Museum as part of the Chief Manuelito exhibit since it opened in August 2010.

It was originally intended to be on loan from the Autry for six months but the museum was granted an extension, said Navajo Nation Museum curator Clarenda Begay.

Tabitha Manuelito, another great-great-great-granddaughter of Juanita, captured the final moments with her camera.

"I feel a little sad that it's going back," Manuelito said. "Sometimes we don't hold on to things like we should."

Despite the loss, she said the family was still fortunate to see the textile.

"It's so neat to see something that you never thought you would see," she said.

She has visited the dress six times.

Also present were Rose Nez, a great-great-granddaughter, and Daniel Frank Herman Denetdale, a great-great-great-great grandson.

After the clear casing that held the dress for a year was lifted, Angie McGrew, a conservator from the Autry, assessed the dress for any damage by comparing its condition with a colored photograph that was taken before it left the Autry.

Wearing a glove, McGrew carefully rolled then turned the dress over to inspect its front.

McGrew explained that the backside of the dress was displayed, probably "to show the patches Juanita put on."

Once again she inspected the dress' condition and mentioned that it will be wrapped Tyvek, a breathable synthetic material, for protection as it travels by van to Los Angeles.

After the careful inspection, McGrew then unfolded the dress on a table and left it lying flat while family members waited for their relative and historian Jennifer Nez Denetdale to arrive.

"I look at the dress and imagine my grandmother," Denetdale said.

In 1997 when Denetdale was working in the archives section at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, she was shown a book that had a photo of Juanita wearing the dress.

It was one that Denetdale had never seen before.

"So I went looking for the dress," she said.

She found it at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, now the Autry National Center.

Photographer and collector George Wharton James received the dress from Juanita in 1874. James eventually donated it to the Southwest Museum.

"It's emotional. I've come here several times just to say hello," Denetdale said.

Robert Johnson, cultural consultant at the museum, mentioned to the family that the dress was blessed after arriving at the museum.

"It's all yours," Johnson said, then watched as McGrew and Begay carefully rolled then wrapped the dress before placing it into a large grey box.

Also returning to the Autry was the saddle blanket that was woven by Juanita, which was also wrapped and packed with the dress.

"This side is fine," Begay said, after inspecting the dress as it lay inside the box.

McGrew said this is the first time the dress was on display. After it returns to the Autry it will be placed in storage. There are no plans to display it again.

Denetdale, McGrew and Begay left the morning of Oct. 27 to transport the dress back to Los Angeles.

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