Handwoven Navajo and Southwestern Rugs
Handweaving, although starting 1000 years ago as a nomadic craft in the Middle East, has almost always been a commercial endeavor-thus there is little recorded as to the origin of designs. Generally, traders have affected the majority of influence over patterns, color, and quality control. From the earliest experimentation with lines and angles, weavers have continually adapted and absorbed ideas from other cultures to upgrade the craft and increase marketability.
In the New World, from 1700-1800 Navajo Indians learned handweaving techniques from the Spanish and Pueblos. Until the late 1800s, the products were simple wearing blankets for themselves and Chiefs blankets that they traded to the Plains Indians. What most people think of as Navajo design rugs were invented by early territorial traders using ideas from photographs of Persian carpets mixed with Pre-Columbian architectural designs from the Mitla Ruins in Mexico. Add in sheeps wool, imported dyes, and some entrepreneurial spirit, and the Navajo rug became a very marketable product.
Today, the finest of Navajo rugs are very, very expensive. eNativeAmerican.com provides retailers with products that sell. Global trade demands that we bring to market items of quality, economy, and above all something the consumer feels good about acquiring.
Rugs & Runners 
