Diyogí Tsoh: ‘Hubbell-Joe Rug’ gets Diné name at Affeldt Mion Museum
Courtesy | Herb and Dorothy McLaughlin, Arizona State University Library
The Diyogí Tsoh is unfurled outside the Lorenzo Hubbell Co. Trading Post as shoppers look on in this undated photo.
By Dustin Roberto
Guest contributor
Editor’s note: Dustin Roberto is a student and researcher in the University of New Mexico’s College of Population Health.
WINSLOW, Ariz.
The Affeldt Mion Museum at the La Posada Hotel has finished renaming a signature Diné weaving in its permanent collection.
Courtesy | Old Trails Museum, Winslow
Historical Society
Diné weaver Julia Joe weaves on a loom with her daughter, Lillie Joe Hill, working beside her in this undated photo.
The masterwork long labeled the “Hubbell-Joe Rug” will now be known as “Big Rug,” or “Diyogí Tsoh.” The change follows a community process meant to center the weavers and the collective effort behind the piece.
Courtesy | National Park Service/Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site
Diné weavers Julia Joe and her daughter, Lillie Joe Hill, display their work in this undated photo.
Commissioned in 1932 by trading post owner Lorenzo Hubbell Jr. to draw visitors to his Winslow store, the rug was woven in Lower Greasewood, Arizona, by master weaver Julia Joe and her daughter, Lillie Joe Hill. The project grew into a community undertaking as Julia’s husband, Sam, added a room to the family home and built a metal-pipe loom large enough to hold the work. After five years the weaving was completed in 1937. (Recent museum materials list the size at roughly 21 by 33 feet. Earlier sources cite 24 by 33 feet and about 250 pounds).
After its completion the rug traveled widely.
To read the full article, please see the Sept. 25, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow