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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;komokwa, post: 2596517, member: 301&quot;]Deseret News...1996</p><p><br /></p><p>For centuries after learning the skill from neighboring tribes, Navajo women wove baskets. The baskets were made for carrying and storing food or other household items as well as for use in various sacred ceremonies. However, near the end of the 19th century, trading posts were established and the Navajo found modern containers like canteens, tin plates and cups more practical than woven baskets.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unlike the utilitarian baskets, writes Carol Edison in her book &quot;Willow Stories,&quot; production of ceremonial basketry was governed by formal rules and taboos. &quot;During weaving there were dietary and sexual restrictions, rules about physical contact for both weaver and weaving materials and special, ceremonial cleansings required both before and after making the basket. To make matters worse, Navajo weavers were much more interested in weaving rugs than baskets because the same trading posts that brought modern containers to the reservation opened up the outside market to Navajo-made goods, especially the popular wool rugs.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Because of the strictness associated with weaving ceremonial baskets and the attraction of trade goods or cash for rugs, basket weaving went into decline.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually Navajo ceremonial baskets were produced by neighboring<b> Ute and Paiute weavers </b>who weren&#039;t subject to the same restrictions and taboos. They traded or sold these ceremonial baskets to the trading post, which in turn traded or sold them to the Navajo.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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