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By the 1890s, the internal demand for Navajo weaving was almost non-existent. To make matters worse a widespread financial panic seized the US economy in 1893, depressing commodity prices for the raw wool that had come to replace weavings as the Navajo’s primary trade item. During this difficult time, several traders realized that there could be an external market for Navajo weavings made as rugs rather than blankets. The nascent market for Indian rugs was fueled at the turn of the century by a growing national interest in Native peoples and artifacts.
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These rugs are expensive because they require so much effort and time to weave.
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The best way to identify a genuine Navajo rug is to look for the warp and selvage lines. These lines are often continuous, although the weaver can vary. Fake rugs can be harder to spot, particularly if they are priced at less than $200. The warp threads in a fake rug will also have ridges on the end since they are made of wool rather than cotton.

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Your website is wonderful. I have learned a lot. Our family lived in Church Rock, Texas, in the 70s. My parents bought a few rugs in a trade post near the area now called "Legacy Park", and from a Navajo weaving family. They also raised the sheep and lived inside a hagon. I still have the recipe for the mutton stew, and the fry bread. They're not the names my mother remembers. Please help me to identify the type of rug they are. They are five in all.
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Wool is the standard material used in the making of a Navajo rug. There are a few genuine Navajo rugs made using synthetic materials such as acrylic. If encountering one, it could be looked at as the result of a Navajo woman weaving her own cheap knock-off. In such case, it probably doesn't matter is it is real or not. The imitators may use wool but there are poor fakes made in Mexico that use polyester. Some fakes made in India or Pakistan use a blend of wool and polyester or acrylic. Contrary to another author, sniffing the rug to determine if the rug is made from wool is not useful. Much of the wool use in contemporary Navajo rugs has very little lanolin and doesn't smell at all. Older rugs may have been cleaned or have acquired other odors. It is comic to watch a potential buyer go through a store's inventory sniffing the rugs. A buyer should learn to distinguish the look and feel of wool from other materials. While there are more scientific means of testing for wool, they are usually not practical in the context of purchasing a rug from a store or Indian arts dealer.


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There will usually be 3 bands of wavy lines or a solid color between one or two more complex bands,which are patterned with motifs such as squash blossoms, arrows, stars,crosses, triangles, etc. Muted earthen colors such as rust, grey, and rich brown, aswell as pastel greens, pinks, or yellow are common. This design was said to be influenced by the serape blanketsworn in New Mexico.The design is usually a simple geometric shape such as a chevron, diamond,serrate, or triangle, etc. These are either repeated throughout the rug or as a border or evencan appear in blocks set against a solid background. The design will appearquite busy and can have a combination of colors. When Germantown wool from Pennsylvania was originally imported, it afforded the weavers a wonderful range of new colors to work with and this design wasperfect for the combining contrasting colors.