Experts assert prices for a good quality Navajo weaving increased 700% from the mid 1960's to mid 1980's, and over the past 20 years, is increasing by 10 to 20% per year. Navajo rugs, blankets and weavings have been in existence for approximately 300 years. Unquestionable, Navajo weaving will undergo further change, and one possibility is a decline. The more optimistic view is that this Navajo art is on the threshold of widespread public acceptance for what it is, an art form. Today, Navajo rug production is high, the quality is excellent and rug prices continue to climb. It is our hope this pattern continues, and Americanization will not someday be the demise of Navajo weaving. In either event, buying a Navajo rug is a good investment.
The earliest known Navajo blankets and weavings resembled the southwest Indian Pueblo art of the time, and were fashioned of plain stripes, and twill weaves, resulting in a diagonally ribbed effect. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Navajo weavers crafted broader than long mantas using natural wool colors, indigo, and a few vegetal dyes. Mantas were a shawl-like piece of clothing, also identified with their Pueblo neighbors. The Navajo weavers obtained unraveled red yarns from commercial trade fabrics, such as bayeta; and included these yarns in their weavings. Originally from England, bayeta was available to the southwest Indians in vast quantities, through traders.
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