Navajo rugs, blankets and weavings
Basketmaker people
National Monument Valley Navajo Reservation

A larger population, changes in climatic regimes, and more sophisticated organizational strategies all supported the changes. Architecture became more sophisticated, enabling the establishment of villages. Pithouse structures, roofed with a four-post support system, became common. These structures included ventilation shafts, hearths, living areas, and room for food storage. Surrounding pithouses were work and activity areas, storage facilities, and other features.

Systematic agriculture also made a wider range of foods, including more domesticated plants, available. Beans, varieties of squash, corn, and cotton were typical. Amaranth and piñon, both wild resources, were also staples. Basketmaker III people may have kept domesticated turkeys and they hunted rabbits, some small rodents, deer, and antelope. Sedentary living offered a more broad and certain supply of food than did nomadic life.

During this era, Basketmaker III people began to inhabit the area that would become Navajo National Monument. Subsurface dwellings at Turkey Cave date from this era, and Inscription House may contain similar sites. Yet occupation of the monument area was not yet systematic or widespread.

By 700 A.D., major changes in the way the people of northeastern Arizona lived were again underway. These mirrored a similar evolution elsewhere in the Southwest. Increasing populations, growing village size, social integration, and more complicated and complex agricultural systems typified this era. Populations spread geographically south of the San Juan River into the Tsegi drainage and on Black Mesa west to Red Lake. Called Pueblo I by archeologists, this phase had levels of technology and the kinds of structures that were common throughout the Southwest. Much above-ground building of masonry storerooms, generally attached to existing pithouses, was typical of the era.

Within the boundaries of the monument, there is significant evidence of habitation during the Pueblo I phase. Turkey Cave shows remains of this vintage, while Inscription House and Keet Seel may also contain similar evidence. The people of the monument area were clearly Anasazi, but the localized subcultures that characterized later periods had not yet developed.

After 900 A.D., the uniform population typical of the previous 200 years became more diverse. Smaller, regionally distinct communities began to appear, characterized by three- to five-room Pueblos. The cultural subgroup that came to live in vicinity of the monument had been labeled the Kayenta Anasazi. Village sizes differed as they spread over a larger area. Experiments in the utilization of new environments and resources were common. Extensive agricultural systems and complex trade networks also typified the time period. Trade goods and ceramic technologies proliferated as the forms, size, and variety of pottery and the range of domestic household goods greatly expanded. Surprisingly, the monument area has less evidence of this phase than the times before or after.

During the 1100s A. D., populations again began to grow after a decline at the end of the Pueblo II phase. As a result, greater experimentation characterized this era. In agriculture and storage, new techniques were introduced as a way to offset the impact of a declining physical environment, increasing population, and loss of some trade partners. A large area northwest of Navajo National Monument was abandoned, as its people retreated toward what is now the monument. This increase in population density spurred technological advance, but placed great strain on the natural resource base of the Pueblo III communities.

• Navajo history
• Navajo Nation
• Canyon de Chelly
• Chaco Culture

Tsegi phase Monument Valley Navajo Reservation - page 6

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. Native American Indian and Southwest rug art.