Navajo rugs, blankets and weavings
Camino Real Navajo trade route - page 1 of 6

The ancient Camino Real, or Royal Road was an 1,800 mile trail that connected Mexico City to Santa Fe. Although it was the first European road in the nation and used by some of the earliest European settlers, the Camino Real has languished in the shadow of other historic trails, such as the Oregon and the California. This ancient trade route supplied Navajo, Apache, other Southwestern Indians and the Puebloan world with cultural contacts and trade among neighboring tribes and the greater Mesoamerican world. Foodstuffs, hides, livestock, woven blankets, tools, jewelry, and people made their way back and forth across the frontier, along the canyons of the Gobernador.

By 1608, Navajo and Apache raids on villages and towns across the region brought Spanish mounted soldiers across the border. By 1659, captive Navajo men, women and children were being sold along the Rio Grande and sent south to work in silver mines south in Zacatecas. Life became extremely dangerous in Dinetah. During the latter part of the 1700s the Spanish created alliances with the Comanches and Utes, and these combined with various French, Pawnee, and Pueblo interests were aimed at weakening and defeating the Navajos. Atrocities were committed on all sides. Constant raiding and slave-taking occurred. It is estimated that during the early 1800s more than 66 percent of all Navajo families had experienced the loss of members to slavery. Navajo children were taken from their families and sold at auction in Santa Fe, Taos, and other places. Others were sent deep into Mexico to work in the silver mines. Most never returned. Many Navajo families retell stories of slaves taken or escaping during this time.

A network of ancient Indian Trails predated the Spanish Camino Real. By this means the Puebloan world received its cultural contacts and maintained a complex of trade patterns with neighboring tribes and with the greater Mesoamerican world. The West Mexican Interior Trail connected western Mesoamerica with the sophisticated Chalchihuites culture of Durango and Zacatecas. This route joined a much traveled interior trunk line which brought goods from the west coast of Mexico. Sometime after A.D. 1000 the West Mexican Interior Trail was linked to the great trading center of Casas Grandes in western Chihuahua, which flourished during the 13th and 14th centuries. It quickly became the primary redistribution center for the goods moving into the upper Southwest.

One of the important northern segments of the Casas Grandes Trail was the Rio Grande Pueblo Indian Trail extending from around El Paso to the upper Rio Grande. By the end of the 15th century Casas Grandes was in ruins and its roadways fell into disuse. However, the Rio Grande segment remained intact and quickly became incorporated into a second interregional trail system. As Casas Grandes declined, vigorous trading communities arose in the mountain valleys of northern Sonora. About mid-14th century, these became anchor points in a trail connecting the Southwest with western Mesoamerica. Within a century this West Mexican Coastal Trail was the major route from the Mexican heartland to the basin and range country of southeastern Arizona and to southwestern New Mexico, with its northern terminus at modern Zuni. Two major trunk lines connected this route to the Rio Grande Pueblo Indian Trail. These ancient trade routes supplied Southwestern Indians with important trade goods. Up from the south came marine shell, parrot and macaw feathers, and copper objects (particularly copper jingle bells). Down the trails from the Southwest went turquoise, peridot, serpentine, garnet and other semi-precious stones, pottery, salt, meerschaum, alibates flints, processed bison products and perhaps slaves.

Camino Real Navajo trade route - page 2

Taos Trading Post is an online store, offering a tasteful variety of authentic Native American Indian rugs. We have been buying rugs for over 20 years, are family owned and operated, and committed to providing our customers with quality rugs, coupled with unsurpassed service. Our store sells only those weavings that meet our superior standards; and will therefore provide you, the customer, with years of pleasure. We stock a choice selection of contemporary Native American rugs, including Navajo, Mexican Zapotec and Indian rugs. We offer an attractive selection of authentic hand spun Navajo wool rugs in regional rug styles, including the popular Ganado, Storm, Two Grey Hills, and Teec Nos Pos designs, and our pledge of authenticity. Whether you prefer an authentic Navajo weaving or replica, our Southwest rugs will introduce the Native American Indian atmosphere to your home. Navajo, Indian, Mexican Zapotec and Southwest rugs, blankets and weavings for sale online.