Influential weaver Martha Gorman Schultz (Navajo (Diné)) spent a great deal of her life in front of a loom creating weavings, many of them grand in scale and complex in design. She was watched by her children and grandchildren, who followed her into weaving and then greatness. Schultz, the award-winning matriarch of a large weaving family, died February 21. She was 93.
Left: Martha Gorman Schultz with one of her weavings. Photo courtesy Lola Cody. Right: A large mural of Martha Gorman Schultz on a building in Los Angeles. The work was painted by prominent muralist El Mac. Photo courtesy Lola Cody.
Schultz, who had been in failing health, was still active at her loom until recently. She last participated at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2018 and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in 2021. Weaving was her calling, says her daughter, Lola Cody.
“She was always weaving, even when we were growing up,” Cody adds. “She wove to support us, and then we all started weaving because of her. She never really taught us. She just sat down and showed us how to do it. We learned by watching her. It was a constant in our lives.”
Schultz had learned from her mother, a gift that had been passed down many generations. She even had her own sheep, which is where she acquired her wool. “Growing up, our task was to help herd the flock, sheer the sheep, card the wool and then spin the wool,” Cody says. “She always had her own sheep. When I started weaving, that’s where I got my flock.”
Born and raised in Leupp, Arizona, Schultz was active in the weaving community all around Arizona, including at the Museum of Northern Arizona in the 1970s and 1980s. She later won awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market. She witnessed her children, Cody and Marilou Schultz, as well as others, succeed in weaving, and then her grandchildren, including Melissa Cody, the acclaimed contemporary weaver. At the time of her death, Schultz had 39 grandchildren, 60 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
Today her works are in major public and private collections around the country, and her influence has stretched all around the Southwest. —
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