American rug weaving

Primitive weaving was developed by Indian tribes from Alaska to South America. In some regions it reached a fine art in their basketry and cotton cloth.

But practically the only rugs of im­portance are those made by the Navajo people of our south­western states.

The Navajo Indians are banded together into small nomadic tribes who, like the nomads of the Caucasus, wander from place to place to find pastures for their sheep.

Like them, too, they are rug weavers, and each family always travels with its loom.

When the Spaniards crossed the Rio Grande in 1540, they brought the first sheep into this country. The agricultural Indians of the Pueblos did not have enough feed for sheep.

The nomad Indians, who were habitually on the move, became the shepherds.