Navajo rug

Having adopted horses and sheep from the Spanish, the Navajo of Arizona and New Mexico were already expert weavers by the time American settlers first encountered them in the nineteenth century. With the arrival of the railroads a cottage weaving industry emerged in which Navajo weavers adapted and transformed design and patterns found in nineteenth-century Oriental rugs introduced to them by American traders. Navajo rugs were then directly marketed to compete with these seemingly exotic pieces from Persia and the Near East. Despite this borrowing, Navajo weaving maintains a uniquely Southwestern aesthetic and remains quite distinctive. This piece crisply draws a column of two zigzag medallions with two related medallions forming a limited repeat. A simple checkered border frames the piece.