The Salish-speaking First Nations whose aboriginal homelands included the Pacific coast area of present-day Washington and British Columbia have a long tradition of weaving. Weaving styles were owned by families and were passed down from mother to daughter or from grandmother to granddaughter. In an essay in Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native … Continued
In the American Southwest today one of the most popular art forms sought by museums, collectors, and tourists is the Navajo rug. While the Navajo had been weaving for centuries and their works were traded over a wide area, the development of the Navajo rug really started in 1881 with the arrival of the railroad. … Continued
Even the most casual tourist who travels through the Navajo lands of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah cannot help but notice the abundance of fine weavings commonly called “rugs” which are offered for sale at roadside stands, tourist traps, restaurants, museums, and fine arts galleries. Navajo weavings are some of the best-known and most … Continued
For more than a thousand years, American Indian agriculturalists have been living in villages in what is now Arizona and New Mexico. When the Spanish first encountered these villages, many of which had multi-story apartment complexes built from stone, they referred to them as “pueblos,” the Spanish word for village. Europeans have grouped these … Continued
