This event could have stimulated the urgent necessity for developing agropastoralism as compensation for the loss of large herds of game animals. Some scientists think that human communities may have kept young animals in captivity prior to the advent of full blown agropastoralism. However, in order to become domesticated, young animals had to grow into adults that would breed in captivity and could be managed as a group. Other scientists believe that evidence points to humans becoming associated with herd animals and evolving domestication through management techniques of the herd, rather than individual animals.
Only certain species have characteristics that lend themselves to domestication, as defined by Francis Galton (1865):
- hardiness, young can survive if removed from parents;
- an in-born liking for humans, behavioral patterns based on a dominance hierarchy;
- comfort-loving, not highly-adapted for instant flight, but live close together;
- useful to fulfill human needs, an easily-maintained source of food, as well as meeting other needs such as fibers for clothing;
- breed freely in captivity, a very important factor for successful domestication;
- easy to tend, reasonably placid, versatile in feeding habits, and gregarious so that a herd or flock will stay together and can be watched by a few individuals; and
- ability of humans to communicate with the animals - the most important factor, according to Galton (this before the huge factory farms where humans never touch the animals except to kill them).
"A man has less spontaneous hold over an ox or a sheep [than he does over a dog]. He must study their ways and tutor his behavior before he can either understand the feelings of those animals or make his own intelligible to them. He has no natural power at all over many other creatures." Galton, The first steps towards the domestication of animals
There is no doubt that it is easier to hunt wild animals for food and gather wild plants than to harvest primitive cereals, build fences to restrain livestock, and be ever aware of having to provide food and water for the ambulatory larder. Yet, it is a fact that whereas 12,000 years ago all humans lived as hunter-gatherers, 5,000 years later the majority of people in the most densely populated areas had become farmers. Changes in climate such as occurred at the end of the Pleistocene, combined with a reduction of habitable land, together with a lowered density of large wild game animals as a result of the Younger Dryas, was the motive for the inception of pastoralism and agriculture.
While Western Asia has received the most attention as the Fertile Crescent and beginning of agriculture, archaeological evidence now points to similar, concurrent developments in Southeast Asia and the Americas, although not in Europe.
By the 7th millennium BCE, the domestic sheep and goat had become the principal source of meat and raw materials for the early farmers of Western Asia, and cattle and pigs may also have begun the process of domestication. The ass and the horse were the last of the livestock animals to be domesticated. Neolithic farmers began moving sheep and goats into Europe around this time (after 7,000 BCE). Sheep remains found in Greece, where no wild sheep live, date to 7,200 BCE. Early sheep and goat herders spread rapidly from western Asia into Europe, as well as north and east into Asia and the Far East.
There are at least 40 wild races of sheep and eight basic taxonomic groups. Wild sheep probably developed in the southern Himalayas, and there is genetic evidence to support the theory that the American Bighorn Sheep represent a diverging arm of these Ovis argali sheep. George Schaller (1977) pointed out that the American wild sheep lack the submissive posture that the Eurasian sheep have. There were no wild goats indigenous to the Americas.
Ovis orientalis, the Asiatic mouflon, was probably the ancestor of domestic sheep. It is found in mountainous regions from Asia Minor to Iran. Morphological changes occur when animals are domesticated. One of the most important was the change in fleece characteristics from the stiff and hairy outer coat in the wild sheep to woolly fleeces.
Whereas sheep are grazing ungulates, goats are browsers and are one of the most versatile ruminants in feeding habits. They never penetrated as far north as mountain sheep, which is probably why they did not cross the land bridge over the Bering Straits. By their temperament, they are also more difficult to control than sheep. Sheep were domesticated first and goats were probably domesticated a thousand years or so later. Sheep and goats have usually been kept together. Goats may have been used more for meat and milk; sheep for meat and wool. When the animal was butchered, all the parts found some use.
The wild sheep and the most primitive domestic sheep shed their undercoat annually. It falls off in large clumps that can easily be gathered and felted or spun. Even in recent times in present-day North America, people followed the wild mountain sheep during the Spring, gathering large clumps of shed wool from the branches and brambles where the sheep would go to rub off their winter coats. The oldest fabric found in archaeological sites is felted wool.
The first "primitive genotype" domesticated sheep had a soft undercoat and a long outer coat, which when spun created a very strong, durable fiber that was suitable for wearing and coverings. La Raza Churra, and from that the Navajo-Churro, is one of these type of sheep. Goats have hair, and are usually combed to remove the fibers, although they can be shorn. Angora goats, form Asia Minor, have mohair, which is similar to wool but has a smoother surface and thinner fibers. To support a fiber industry, it is more convenient to be able to shear the fiber-producing animal and recover all of the fleece at once.
References about sheep:
from A Natural History of Domesticated Animals, by Juliet Clutton Brock
University of Texas Press, Austin, 1989, 208 pp.“Most of the features of domestication in sheep were common in western Asia by 3,000 BCE, as shown in pictorial representations from Mesopotamia. In Ancient Egypt, there were white, black, and piebald sheep before 2000 BCE. As nomadic pastoralists sought new pastures and homelands, their sheep and goats went with them, until they were spread from the Levant [Middle East] throughout many parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa.”
According to Brock, cattle and horses were domesticated only about 4,000 years ago, much later than sheep. Pigs were domesticated in various parts of the world around the same time. There were no large animals in North America whose natural history lent themselves to domestication, so that the only domesticated animals in this part of the world were turkeys. In South America, llamas and the other camelids were domesticated for fiber and carrying burdens, and cavas (a type of guinea pig) were used for food. There’s a difference between making a wild animal, such as a deer, a pet and actually domesticating the species so that its reproduction and movements are controlled by humans for their own use.
from Parabola, Greek God of Shepherds
"The Gods of Metes and Bounds," David Hoffman and Sharon Hoffman, Parabola, February, 2000; vol. 25, no. 1"Hermes is the god of change and luck. Since before recorded history, Greek travelers created piles of stones, called herma, at the thresholds of political territories. Every passing traveler would add a stone to signify his presence. In time, these stone piles gave their name to stone pillars that also marked boundaries, each was adorned with a bearded head of Hermes and a stylized phallus. Originally god of shepherds, who must have frequently crossed the boundaries marked by the herma, Hermes became associated with movement, outdoor places, and with the chance increases and decreases experienced by herds. As a god of chance increase, Hermes is also associated with the market, where profit made by lending money was referred to by the same term used for newborn animals, tokos. " In English, the word has come down as “token”, among other derivatives.
from The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World, Carlos Fuentes, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1992
“....Hercules brought the mythology of the bull to Spain. Like Thesus, Hercules killed a fire-breathing bull in Crete. But he also traveled to Spain, there to steal the herd of red bulls belonging to the three-bodied giant, Geryon, and drive them back to Greece. Hercules had to cross the narrow strait between Africa and southern Spain to do this [the same crossed in 711 by Tariq, the Moor]; therefore the name of that passage, the Pillars of Hercules. Hercules proved his nobility by returning some of the cattle to Spain, in recognition of the hospitality he received there. The ruling king, Chrysoar, then established the ritual of sacrificing a bull to Hercules every year.”Hercules is the symbol of the cavalcade of peoples that came to Spanish shores, beginning in the remotest antiquity. All of them shaped the body and soul not only of Spain but of her descendants in the New World. The story of Hercules is interpreted by some to describe the imposition of the cattle culture on the existing pastoral sheep and goat culture in Spain.
People and Sheep in Spain
Compiled from a variety of sources.
At least by 2,000 BCE, pastoralists were settling in Spain, coming primarily from the south, along the Mediterranean shores. About 900 BCE, the Celts arrived from the north and these groups fused into the Celtiberians, "who formed the core of interior Spain, extant to this day" (Fuentes). The Basques were in the mountainous regions, and were either separated earlier from the first group, or pre-dated the pastoralists and simply adopted the sheep and pastoralist lifestyle, much as the Navajos adopted the sheep from the Spanish.
Small tribes ensconced themselves in the isolated Spanish littoral from Catalonia to Andalusia. "This was a culture of shepherds and village life, peasantry and tribal instincts, surviving on meat, cheese, and bread." (Fuentes)
About 1,000 BCE, the Phoenicians, and subsequently the Greeks, set up commercial centers at the western end of the Mediterranean, where they established their own civilization of wine, olive oil, seafood, cereals, and monetary circulation, as well as beautiful cities such as Cádiz (Gades) and Málaga (Malaca).
Some Spanish Jews claim that their ancestors, direct descendants of King David, first came into Spain with the Phoenicians, others date their arrivals after the second destruction of the temple in 70 CE. They brought with them the Semitic pastoral values and talents. Jews in Spain were found in both towns and peasant villages.
Rome came into Spain in 200 BCE in pursuit of Hannibal, and stayed until 500 CE, layering the Latin language, Roman law, history, and philosophy onto the Spanish populations. Through Rome, the Greek influence was continued.
The fiber arts that had been refined in Egypt were passed on to Greece and thence through Rome, along with the sciences and other arts. The prosperity and culture of the crumbling Roman Empire were shattered in the early 400s CE by the invasion of the germanic Visigoths. Their kings ruled Spain until 711 CE, when Tariq ibn Ziyad (el Moro) landed at Gibraltar with an army of 7,000 Berbers from Morocco. The history of the Moors in Spain is well-known and is central to forming the Spanish culture that ultimately set sail from the "End of the World" to cross the Atlantic to the Americas.
from The Story of the Moors in Spain,
Stanley Lane-Poole, originally pub. 1886; reissued in 1990, Black Classics Press, Baltimore, MD
“It was through Africa that the new knowledge of China, India, and Arabia reached Europe. The Iberian peninsula was greatly enriched by the labors of the Moors. They established the silk industry, were highly skilled agriculturalists, introducing cotton, rice, sugar cane, dates, lemons, and strawberries into Spain. Abu Zaceria and Ibn Alamam wrote on Moorish animal husbandry and agriculture. Ibn Khaldun, a Moorish agriculturists, wrote a treatise on farming and worked out a theory of prices and the nature of capital. [He has been called the Karl Marx of the Middle Ages.] Caliph Abd er Rahman of Cordoba ordered the construction of an aqueduct, which conveyed pure water from the mountains to the city. Extensive irrigation systems were constructed by Moorish engineers, who also built large underground silos for storing grain.
"The villages, each nestling in its hollow, or perched on a craggy height, were surrounded by vineyards and gardens, olive and mulberry, hedged with cactus and aloe; above , on the rocky uplands, were heard the bells of sheep and kine; and the wine and fruit, the silk and oil, the cheese and wool of the Alpuxarras, were famous in the markets of Granada and the seaports of Andalusia." Quoted from Sir W. Stirling Maxwell, Don John of Austria, describing the condition of the region just prior to the final expulsion of the Moors.
Science and Civilization in Islam
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
from an Islamic cosmographical encyclopedia of the 1200s-1300s
" Sheep and goats.... And to eat it is lawful in all religions and sects, and is salutary. And it is a wholesome animal, and confers prosperity; and the Prophet (may god pour blessings on him and preserve him!) said, of the blessings it confers: The sheep is affluence."
Compare this to the Navajo relationship to sheep - the Good Life, affluence, the wellspring of good things and prosperity. The Arabs did not seem to make much distinction between sheep and goats, and neither do the Navajo. Sheep and goats usually occur together.
Arrival of Sheep in the Southwest and Subsequent Adoption by the Navajo
Compilation from various sources and personal communications.
Columbus brought sheep and goats to the West Indies in 1493, along with sugar cane and other European plants. (Amsden, Navajo Weaving)
Most of the armies of the Spanish Conquest marched with their own meat supply on the hoof. The Churra sheep were by far the most widely used, probably because they were hardy enough to make the journey, ate a greater diversity of vegetation than other breeds, and could go for long periods without water. At this time, the Merino sheep were a closely guarded state secret at the foundation of the great Spanish wool and fabric industry, so it was not likely that this valuable wool breed would be killed for its meat, and the Spanish government prohibited taking the Merino out of Spain in order to maintain its monopoly.
Churras were the first domestic sheep to enter the Southwest. Coronado brought sheep and cattle with his 1540 expedition to find the Seven Cities of Cibola. "The army left Campostela with 5,000 sheep and 150 cows of the Spanish breed." (Hodge, 1895) Coronado joined Alvarado at Tiguex in winter quarters, where the Indians captured a number of horses and mules. The stories of these animals and of the sheep spread faster than the animals, themselves. The natives told Alarcón, who was exploring the Colorado River, that Coronado's party had with them "little black beastes with wooll and hornes." (Winship, 1896) There may have been a preponderance of black sheep in this flock.
He left behind a number of these sheep with the Franciscan friars at the Zuñi and Pecos villages. These sheep were probably all killed, as were the friars, or strayed and perished. The Zuñi do raise some sheep today, including Navajo-Churro, and also work as shepherds for the Navajo.
Throughout the last half of the 1500s, extreme dry conditions extended from the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico and the Southwest to the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi Valley. Severe conditions occurred at times in Mexico, the Southwest, Wyoming and Montana, and the Southeast. Using dendrochronology to look back as far as 1200 CE, no other drought appears to have been as intense, prolonged, and widespread as this megadrought, according to research published by David Stahle, professor of geosciences at the University of Arkansas.
Climate varies within a certain envelope, with a drier spell one year and a damp one the next, but in the 1500s "the basement collapsed and went down to another level," wrote Stahle in an article published in 2000. The tree ring records tell of the worst drought in 1,000 years, with an extended period of dryness lasting 40 years in places. Early records from Spanish and English settlements in the Carolinas and Virginia corroborate these findings. "You can actually see the correlation between the annual weather variation written in archival records and the annual tree rings," Stahle said.
The severely dry weather over the Southwest and northern Mexico may explain why some American Indians in these areas abandoned their pueblos between 1540 and 1598, the researchers contend. One of the fiercest and longest battles between American Indians and European settlers, the Chichimeca War in Mexico, raged for 40 years beginning in 1550, during the most severe part of the drought. There are other recorded instances of environmental disasters such as drought and insect plagues being interpreted by the indigenous populations as a signal from the Creator to rid their land of the intruders. There is some speculation that similar climatic upheavals in Europe fueled witch burnings and the Inquisition.
During the last half of the 1500s, there were few exploratory expeditions into the Southwest, perhaps because of the drought and also because of the political situation.. Entradas during this period certainly brought sheep, and it is probable that some escaped or ended up in native hands, but apparently there was no immediate inclination towards pastoralism on the part of the indigenous peoples.
John Baxter, “Los Carneros de Nuevo Mexico,” notes that in 1581, Hernán Gallegos, scribe with the Chamuscado expedition, stated that the region's possibilities for sheep raising were the best in New Spain. (Until the 1860’s, “New Mexico” encompassed present-day New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and parts of Texas, Utah, and Idaho.)
In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate drove a flock of several thousand Churras from San Bartolomé to San Gabriel, north of Española in present-day New Mexico. However, he did not bring any looms, weaving, or spinning tools with his expedition, which consisted of 129 soldiers, 10 Franciscans, and "a number" of natives from Mexico. This could indicate that 1) the Churra was intended for meat rather than for fiber production, or 2) there were no weavers in the colonizing force, or 3) weaving was not part of the first colony's plan, which intended to live off of the natives rather than produce its own means of subsistence. The first colonists depended on the Pueblos' annual tribute of cotton mantas to supply their needs.
The Pueblos have a long tradition of weaving cotton, techniques which were most likely transmitted from Central American peoples. Even though they were pressed into laboring at the Spanish upright loom to weave jerga for export, probably under the encomienda system, and therefore certainly had direct experience with the loom and wool, the Pueblos never adopted weaving wool or the loom as the Navajos did. (One of these early workshops was in the Palace of the Governors.) For their own use, Pueblos continued to weave (an art form practiced almost exclusively by males in the kiva) their traditional form, styles, and materials, with embroidery done on the fabric by the women. This was common practice through the 19th century, when it declined. There have been various attempts at reviving the weaving tradition, but it is the embroidery that seems to be thriving more in the Pueblos.
Spanish-American Blanketry, H.P. Mera
synopsis from Kate Peck Kent's introduction and Mera’s text
Less than 40 years after Oñate's arrival, woven goods were being produced on the treadle loom for trade to Chihuahua. Mera records a 1638 trade invoice listing 19 pieces of sayal, each about 100 meters long, which could only have been woven as yard goods on treadle looms with cloth and yarn beams capable of holding such lengths. "A Trade Invoice of 1638," LB Bloom, NM Historical Review, vol. X, no. 3, 1935)
By that time, Gov. Luís de Rosas had established an obraje (workshop) in Santa Fe, employing captive Apaches and Utes and perhaps some Pueblos as weavers, He was accused of seizing "looms owned by private citizens in order to give his own workshop a greater monopoly over local textile production." (Spanish Textile Tradition of NM and CO, MNM Press, 1979)
That the weaving of neither the Rio Grande Pueblos nor the western Pueblos influenced Spanish textiles is an interesting fact explained by a number of factors. 1) Pueblos wove articles of traditional clothing in a style very different from that of the Spaniards. 2) The Spanish preferred wool to cotton. After they brought their own looms, they could weave blankets and yard goods to their own tastes. 3) The types of looms were designed to produce different kinds of textiles. 4) The traditional Pueblo weaver was a man working in a kiva, removed from public view, so there would not be much interchange between the Pueblo weaver and the Spanish weaver.
Mera was the first scholar to recognize the beauty and importance of the blankets woven by Spanish-Americans, and to show definitively that they are wholly Spanish, owning nothing in technique or design to the Pueblo weaving that preceded the Spanish looms in the Southwest. He describes in detail the differences between the Navajo and Spanish weaving techniques, as well as particulars about the types of looms and how these determined characteristics of the fabrics produced. He says that the Spanish blanket weavers apparently never attempted any type of twilling.
The Manta is a garment, sometimes translated into English as "blanket" or "cloak". Early Navajo versions of the manta are often referred to as "wearing blankets." Rugs made for the floor were usually jerga, with Navajo rugs appearing as a relatively recent development instigated by the traders.
Some Navajo Cultural Changes During Two Centuries,
WW Hill ed., Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 100, 1940
A translated report on the Navajo by Sergeant Major Don Joachin Codallos y Rabal, reporting depositions taken from twelve men who had entered country occupied by the Navajo from 1706-1743. All reported that at the time of their visits, the weaving of woolen textiles was being carried on. 1706 is the earliest documented date for weaving by a tribal group outside of what is normally considered Pueblo territory. (Mera)
Obviously, the Navajo must have possessed sheep prior to 1706 in order to have established a weaving industry by that time. What is not clear is whether the weaving was originally done by the Navajos, or by Pueblo refugees who had joined them to escape Spanish depredations. Kate Peck Kent says that Navajos learned to weave from the Pueblos around 1650, so is it possible to then push the dates for Navajo acquisition of sheep back to the years prior to 1650? The Navajos have several Pueblo clans - one named Tl'ógí, "Weaver Clan," Zia Pueblo.
Early Weaving in New Mexico,
LB Bloom, NM Historical Review, vol. II, n. 3, 1932
Governor Mendinueta complains in 1777: From the lack of sheep results the lack also of mutton and wool, because by exporting of these species both in sheep and uncarded wool, the looms on which it is being utilized are idle." After that year, all citations up to the end of the 1700s deal principally with Navajo weaving.
In 1803, Salcedo, in Chihuahua, transmitted a royal order to Governor de Chacón directing him to report on the state of industry, agriculture, arts, and trade in his area. As a result of this report, in 1807 a contract was awarded to Don Ygnacio Ricardo Bazan, a certified master of weavers, and his brother, Don Juan Bazan, tradesman of the same guild, to teach their art to the youths. (Early Weaving in NM) These men arrived in Santa Fe from Mexico on March 3, 1807, and were still in New Mexico in 1814. These instructors were most likely responsible for introducing new design concepts, as well as improving techniques. Although the coarsely woven and simply designed blankets of the 1700s may properly be called the earliest form of the Rio Grande blanket, it was due to the influence of these teachers that what was once a merely utilitarian textile in time became one possessing high esthetic value, as well.
Sometime between 1807 and the mid-1800s, a new style of Rio Grande blanket appeared, with designs that were vastly more complex than previous weavings. Mera says that this style was derived from Mexican sources, because the designs resembled those typical of the blanket weaving centers in San Miguel de Allende and Saltillo, also Oaxaca to a lesser degree. The weavers at this time were much more technically proficient, enabling them to execute patterns they saw in imported Mexican blankets as well as in the Navajo trade blankets. At one point, only technical differences in weaving methods distinguished the Spanish New Mexican blankets from the Navajo.
At this same time, the Navajo weaving was improving, and the peak of accomplishment reached in the 1850s and 1860s (the Classic Phase), just prior to the invasion by Kit Carson and the Navajo's Long Walk to Bosque Redondo. Unlike the blankets of the Spanish, the classic phase Navajo blankets show practically no trace of an outside influence. However, after the return from Bosque Redondo and the implementation of the Trading Post system, quite the opposite is true. After 1870, the Navajo can be shown to have incorporated certain units of design from the Rio Grande style blankets, probably due to the Navajo slaves who were kept through that time, and who wove what is termed "slave blankets."
From this emerged the distinctive northern New Mexico style: Valleros, a preferred style particular to the mountain valleys around Taos, NM. The distinctive feature is an eight-pointed star motif in the design. The eight-pointed star is a common motif of Sioux and other Plains Indians, which had on-going contact with Taos Pueblo, the north-eastern most Pueblo.
Mera points out that, given the fine examples of beautiful and technically-proficient Spanish weaving from this period, it must be noted that the class of blankets with "coarsely spun yarns and an indifferent grade of loom-work [was] the rule rather than the exception. Blankets of this character were principally used in out-of-doors activities, where rough usage was to be expected; for example, as lap robes, camp beds for herdsmen, and the like." Made from coarse hand-spun wool on the harness loom, these blankets are referred to as "camp" or "patio" blankets.
By the end of the 1800s, access to imported fabrics and factory-made weavings had all but brought the Spanish weaving industry to a close. However, for a small group of weavers in Chimayó, the demand from curio dealers in Santa Fe for a moderately proceed article for tourist consumption revived the weaving industry in that area. (I believe this took place about 1900.) Technically, the true Chimayó blanket follows traditional procedures, using all commercially spun and dyed wools, but the design and coloration are distinctive. The designs are echoes of Mexican-style blankets, but are elongated horizontally and organized in such a manner as to be easy for production weaving. Fabric is also being produced for use in making articles of clothing, again mostly for the tourist trade, such as neckties, vests, dresses, place mats, pillow covers, and so forth. Chimayó continues to be a Spanish weaving center to the present day. (This community is also known for having a large genízaro population, and the villages north claim some percentage of settlers of Moorish and Sephardic descent.)
More Reports on Early Navajo Weaving: References from the record
quoted in Amsden, Navajo Weaving, 1934
from Theodoro de Croix, Commander-General of the Interior Provinces of New Spain, to his superior, José de Galvez, 2/23/1780: The Navajos, who although of Apache kinship have a fixed home, sow, raise herds, and weave their blankets and cloths of wool.
1785, from an expedition of Spanish officials to break up alliances between the Navajo and Xila Apaches: The interpreter on his part informed the governor that the Navajo nation has 700 families more or less with 4 to 5 persons to each one in its five divisions of San Matheo, Zebolleta or Cañon, Chusca, Hozo, Chelli with its thousand men at arms; that their possessions consist of 500 tame horses; 600 mares with their corresponding stallions and young; about 700 black ewes, 40 cows also with their bulls and calves, all looked after with the greatest care and diligence for their increase. (Interesting to note the reference to "black" ewes.)
from Governor Fernando de Chacón to Pedro de Nava, military commander in Chihuahua, 6/15/1795: The Navajoes, whom you suspect may have aided the Apaches in their incursions, have since the death of their general Antonio been irreconcilable enemies, to such a degree that with us they have observed an invariable and sincere peace. These Gentiles are not in a state of coveting herds [of sheep], as their own are innumerable. They have increased their horse herds considerably; they sow much and on good fields; they work with wool with more delicacy and taste than the Spaniards. Men as well as women go decently clothed; and their Captains are rarely seen without silver jewelry; they are more adept in speaking Castilian than any other Gentile nation; so that they really seem "town" Indians much more than those who have been reduced.
1799 - Don José Cortez, an officer of the Spanish royal engineers stationed in that region, writes that the "Navajos have manufacturers of serge, blankets, and other coarse cloths, which more than suffice for the consumption of their own people; and they go to the province of NM with the surplus, and there exchange their goods for such others as they have not, or for implements they need."
Amsden's analysis: On abundant evidence, then, the Navaho had gained a recognized supremacy in Native Southwestern weaving in wool as early as the opening of the 19th century [even as early as the 1780s]; and down to the present day that supremacy has never been relinquished. The Hopi craftsmen may have shown more conscience and conservatism at times, but the Navaho women have proved the more versatile, imaginative and progressive, and the Navaho blanket has always been the favored child of that odd marriage of the native American loom with the fleece of European sheep.
Marion Rodee, One Hundred Years of Navajo Rugs, UNM Press, 1995
“In Spain, two groups of sheep were developed: the Estantes, or "stationary" kind, and the Transhumantes, or "migratory" kind. The churro was of the Estante kind, well suited to sparse and difficult country. The merino, in contrast, was one of the finest sheep in the world, bred and improved by the Spanish from a breed common throughout the Mediterranean regions of the Roman Empire. The pampered merinos were pastured all over the country, driven across the lands and crops of the common people, into the mountains in the summer, down to the plains in the winter, because of the incorrect belief that this change improved the wool. These merino flocks, the property of the royal family and the nobility, were bred just for the fine, short-stapled quality of their wool, not for adaptation to a special range. The Spanish textile industry flourished because of them. They were so prized that the crime of exporting them from Spain was punishable by death.”
The Basques raised Churra in small flocks which they put out on the mountains daily and brought back in at night, more or less the same techniques used by the Navajo today.
Compare figures with the above statistics from 1785 to the figures given for the Navajo strength at the time of destruction and removal in 1863: The sheep flocks numbered into the tens of thousands, almost all of which were destroyed by the US Army under the command of Kit Carson. The fields, crops, peach orchards, hogans, everything that sustained the Navajo was destroyed and approximately 9,000 Navajos were taken on a 300-mile forced march to Bosque Redondo. [see Amsden for an account of this travesty and how it has affected the Navajo, even to this day.]
After five years at Bosque Redondo, the Navajos were allowed to walk back home. In 1869, they were promised two sheep for every man, woman, and child, which distribution took place at Ft. Wingate. Fourteen thousand churro sheep and a thousand goats were purchased from the Lucero ranch near Mora, NM. (Ruth Underhill, Here come the Navaho, 1953)
The history of the loom from Egyptian times 2000 BCE through the Navajo acquisition is covered in detail by Amsden, Navajo Weaving. A variety of weaving techniques were employed by indigenous peoples in the Americas for weaving cotton, animal fibers, and vegetal fibers. There were several types of looms that were logical precursors and evolutionary antecedents of the upright loom: finger weaving, including plaiting and braiding; knitting, using needles of wood or bone; coiling, with and without foundation, an important step in developing the concept of warp and the Navajo loom; the development of a supporting stake in basket making; the free-warp frame; the supporting frame for plaiting mats; the fixed-warp frame; the needle loom, supported by a belt attached to the weaver's waist; and finally the true loom, or heddle loom. From that point, there evolved the waist loom or belt loom, and the vertical loom. The tools for spinning and weaving evolved along with the looms.
The Navajo adoption of the vertical loom and a tapestry weaving style has determined evolution of Navajo weaving and its designs, as explained by Amsden and Kate Peck Kent (Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries of Change, 1985). Kent's book has excellent illustrations and concise historical analysis of the development of Navajo weaving tools, techniques and designs.
Summary of Navajo-Churro Sheep
Navajo philosophy, spirituality, and sheep are intertwined like wool in the strongest weaving. Sheep symbolize the Good Life, living in harmony and balance on the land. Before the Navajo acquired domesticated sheep on this continent, they held the Idea of Sheep in their collective memory for thousands of years.
In the mid-1600s, Navajo acquisition of the la Raza Churra sheep from their neighbors inspired a radical lifestyle change from hunting and gathering to pastoralism and farming. In the high deserts and wooded mountains of Diné Bikéyah, Navajo Land, the Churro thrived under the spiritual and pastoral care of their new companions, resuming their central role in the People's psychology, creativity, and religious life.
With songs, prayers, and techniques taught to them by Spider Woman and looms first built by Spider Man, traditional Navajo weaving evolved to utilize the special qualities of the glossy Churro fibers. Unlike wool from modern commercial breeds, wool from primitive carpet-wool sheep such as Churro is low in lanolin, so it does not require valuable water for washing nor time-consuming carding. It can be shorn, hand cleaned, then spun into tightly twisted yarn that readily absorbs indigo and native vegetal dyes, from which the Navajo artists create weavings famous for their exceptional luster, fine texture, and durability. The wool can be easily felted for a variety of uses; the distinctive long-haired pelts are highly valued for many uses.
Carpet-wool sheep have two lengths of wool. When shorn, the resulting fleece has very long fibers as well as an undercoat of shorter fibers. Yarn spun from this type of wool is extremely strong and durable, making it excellent for the Navajo rugs and Spanish jerga. (Wool fragments that have endured for thousands of years in the Middle East are from a related breed of sheep.) As the Navajo managed their flocks for over 300 years, they evolved the Navajo-Churro genotype, a breed recognized by the American Sheep Industry and the first domestic livestock breed developed in North America.
The Navajo-Churro can usually be shorn twice a year, rather than the conventional practice of annual shearing. The wool comes in natural colors, including apricot, grey, black, brown, beige, and white, which are highly-prized by hand-spinners. Genetically resistant to many sheep diseases, Navajo-Churros can withstand austere conditions and have excellently flavored meat.
By 1863, Navajo-Churro sheep flocks numbered into the tens of thousands, almost all of which were destroyed by the US Army under the command of Kit Carson. The fields, crops, peach orchards, hogans, everything that sustained the Diné was destroyed and approximately 9,000 Navajos were taken on a 300-mile forced march to Bosque Redondo. [see Amsden for an account of this travesty and how it has affected the Navajo, even to this day.]
After five years at Bosque Redondo, the Navajos were allowed to walk back home. In 1869, they were promised two sheep for every man, woman, and child, which distribution took place at Ft. Wingate. Fifteen thousand churro sheep and a thousand goats were purchased from the Lucero ranch near Mora, NM. (Ruth Underhill, Here Come the Navaho, 1953)
After the return from Bosque Redondo, the US government instituted the system of reservation traders, who became the chief link between Navajos and the non-native world. These traders were instrumental in the transition from wearing blankets to the rugs which are associated in the public's mind with Navajo weaving. The importance of the railroads in this commerce beginning in the 1880s was heightened by the establishment of Harvey Houses and the tourist excursions into Navajo country, as well as the Spanish villages of northern New Mexico.
While the forced Navajo relocation to Bosque Redondo in 1863 was destructive and its impacts reverberate today, the Navajo quickly rebuilt their sheep flocks through astute management and resource conservation. However, these gains were once again destroyed by a series of federal government actions which led to the almost total eradication of the Churro, negatively impacting Navajo culture, weaving, traditional lifestyle, and self-sufficiency. In the early 1900s, market forces, ignorance, and misguided attempts to "improve" Navajo wool, depressed the economic value of Navajo-Churro sheep and led to their almost complete disappearance from their homeland.
At the same time, traditional summer grazing lands in the mountains were appropriated by the U.S. government and a system of allotments was instituted which disrupted the traditional way of family land management. The lack of access to appropriate grazing lands and their nutritious plants caused a number of problems, including inferior quality wool, lower lambing rates, poor meat production, and most tragically, devastation of the already fragile lands of the Navajo Nation.
During the 1930s, Navajos were forced by the United States to radically reduce their herds - the wellspring of their Good Life. Government agents went from hogan to hogan, shooting a specified percentage of the sheep in front of their horrified owners, who love their sheep and regard them as family members. First to be shot were the Churro, because the agents thought this hardy breed was "scruffy and unfit." Goats were also killed because they were thought to be uneconomical and destructive of the land. Today, elders tearfully recall that time and can describe in detail each sheep that was killed and the exact location of the massacre.
In the late ‘30s and ‘40s, federal agricultural agents discouraged raising the Churro and, under the auspices of the Fort Wingate program, encouraged cross-breeding with other fine wool genotypes. Unfortunately, the fine wool Merino and Rambouillet breeds require more resources such as grass and water, and more herd management. Their shorter wool fibers break easily when hand spun using traditional Navajo methods and do not take the native, natural dyes very well. Navajo weavers became discouraged with trying to process this new wool by traditional means, and many began buying commercially produced and dyed yarns.
While beautiful weavings have been created with commercial yarns, their use has contributed to breaking the traditional tie between sheep, wool, land, and weaving. Weavings made with commercial yarns are not as durable and the texture and quality are not the same as those created with Navajo-Churro wool. Among today’s informed collectors, weavings from Churro wool command premium prices.
Up until recent times, sheep were owned almost exclusively by women, and fiber arts was considered primarily a woman’s occupation. The men supported the family infrastructure and interfaced with outside economic factors. Today, many men maintain flocks and use their wool for weaving. Young people are often involved in traditional life through herding, carding, spinning, and other activities related to sheep and fiber arts. As a result of recent changes in lifeways, family stability has also experienced the negative effects caused by displacing the Navajo-Churro breed.
In addition, Churro meat is very lean in comparison to the meat of other modern, contemporary breeds. The disappearance of the Churro has adversely affected the Navajos’ health, as well as economic opportunities for specialized niche markets for meat and wool.
By the 1970s, only about 450 of the old type Navajo-Churro existed on the entire Navajo Nation, and only a few specimens were preserved in other locations. The conventional wisdom of the time was “the breed is not useful - let it die out,” an attitude often directed towards the traditional cultures, themselves.
In the mid-1970s, animal scientist Dr. Lyle McNeal recognized the genetic and cultural significance of the Navajo-Churro. In 1977, Dr. and Mrs. McNeal founded the Navajo Sheep Project, which currently maintains a breeding flock in Wyoming. The project has placed many breeding stock with Navajo families and helped form the nucleus of Ganados del Valle/Tierra Wools flocks in Los Ojos.
In 1991, Navajo sheep producers formed Diné bé’iina’, Inc. as a nonprofit corporation to restore the Navajo-Churro sheep to the Navajo Nation; create economic development programs supporting sheep, wool, and weaving; and strengthen and continue the Navajo Sheep Culture. The combined efforts of NSP and DBI have increased the Navajo-Churro being raised Navajo sheep producers as well as establishing the genetic diversity needed for breeding. In September 2002, a new project will be begin by distributing over 250 Navajo-Churro to Navajo families, establishing a nucleus breeding flock on leased land at St. Michael Indian School, and initiating the St. Michael Navajo-Churro sheep breeding and training program serving community-based partnerships on the Navajo Nation.
Compilation of historic information by Suzanne Jamison, who takes full responsibility for any errors of fact and omission.
Contact through the DBI e-mail.
