Indians and non-Indians have been exchanging gifts to mark friendly encounters since first contact. In a recent gesture of friendship, art dealer Norman Hurst, owner of Hurst Gallery, and his wife, Katherine B. Jones, assistant dean for information technology and media services at Harvard Divinity School, have given a Diné (Navajo) medicine man a sacred, antique, ceremonial healer’s fan from their private collection.

Norris Nez, the hataali (medicine man; singer) who identified the fan, informed Hurst and Jones that it would be most welcome, because his own, similar fan had become quite worn and fragile from many years of use in healing ceremonies and religious rituals. He said that this fan was used in a central ceremonial rite of Diné culture.

Hurst and Jones said they are honoring the Diné belief that such sacred objects should not be sold or even displayed outside of their cultural, religious context. They are delighted, not only that the fan is being returned to the people who created it; but, more importantly, that in the future it will play an important role in the ongoing religious and healing practices for which it was created. As a token of their appreciation, Norris’s wife, Lena Nez, a noted Diné weaver, has made a reciprocal gift of one of her prized weavings.

Although Hurst and Jones and Norris and Lena Nez have not met directly, their relationship and the identification of the fan and its cultural significance was fostered by Carol Halberstadt, cofounder and coordinator of Black Mesa Weavers for Life and Land, a Special Project of Cultural Survival, Inc. The nonprofit weavers’ organization was created in 1998 to help restore economic and social self-sufficiency to the Diné of the Black Mesa region of northeastern Arizona by maintaining traditional, sustainable lifeways based on sheepherding and the fair-trade marketing of wool and weavings. In addition to receiving fair prices for their products, the Black Mesa Weavers have been awarded grants to develop solar-powered windmills as a source of renewable energy, and to establish a handspun yarn enterprise using the unique fleece from their rare Navajo-Churro sheep.

Hurst Gallery is at 53 Mount Auburn Street.

For information, www.hurstgallery.com or 617-491-6888.