Rugs & Weavings
The Navajo people arrived in the southwest before the Spanish (who first arrived in the 1500s). Spanish and Mexican style weaving took place on the horizontal loom, a ponderous contraption. Fortunately, the Navajo weavers learned from the pueblo people of the Southwest, whose loom was a simple device and easily moved-an important attribute for the early Navajo lifestyle. Although pueblo men were traditionally the weavers, in Navajo culture, it was the women who evolved into the predominant weavers.