Sadie Deshnod is a Navajo weaver living in the four corners region of the United States. Sadie taught herself to weave, by observing her mother and aunties weaving in the early 1900's. According to Mrs. Deshnod, her mother and aunties were too busy with the tasks of daily life, to show her the explicit steps needed to weave when she asked them to teach her. So, a young girl at the time, she took the initiative to teach herself.

"I came upon some unwanted wool at my relatives house, and stuffed it under my blouse. Then I took the wool down to the stream and washed it, carded it, spun it and fashioned a little loom myself and wove a miniature rug which sold for 75 cents during the depression. My father noticed my interest in weaving so he helped me to set my goal  when I was 7 years old. With better weaving instruments that he provided, I quickly advanced to experimenting with styles of weaving that were passed down for generations.

Stories behind the many different styles of weaving are like clues that weavers use to try and create their own design. In other words the stories are like an imaginary blue print which makes it hard to craft the abstract designs, plus the incorporation of colors at the same time. If a weaver can achieve this level of weaving in which you become one with the rug, then you have mastered your own self. According to the old people weaving built character, strength, wisdom, courage, stability and endurance by patience. Those are the ingredients for a true weaver.  I am 90 years old now and in good health, so I must have deduced the inner spiritual essence of weaving.

"Whoever owns my rugs I wish upon them the same great spiritual gain that I have received. May they have longevity, a rich healthy life and remedy for any problems if they should exist."  I heard some years ago about a great design called two gray hills. That design eventually reached me in the form of pictures in a magazine and I did not fine anything unusual about it.  It was the same designs that everyone was using from the time they could remember. The trader at two gray hills trading post had hit his lucky numbers when he convinced the world that this was an original.  He gave it a name and sold it to the world like a Picasso piece. Well of course the people of the world are gullible, and so the trader cashed in on false advertisement. The weavers of two gray hills needed recognition, so apparently they went along with it.  What was once a tool to understand life was commercialized. Weaving was no longer about teaching discipline for one's own self, now it became a business.  The true purpose of weaving was on it's way to extinction, and the all mighty dollar  was it's rebirth.  Well, today everyone even in China has a Navajo rug. They are a nickel a dozen said this one trading post owner. I disagree with him because it was one of his sort that made it that way.  The real rugs are still woven naturally by true weavers like they were generations ago. They still have the true spiritual significance in them."