Navajo-Churro

That history is not a gentle one. Spanish colonists built a textile industry on the enslaved and coerced labor of Indigenous weavers who had already worked cotton and other fibers in the Southwest for centuries. Many Diné, living at the edge of Spanish occupation, acquired sheep and goats by trade and by raid. After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 they expanded their flocks across their own homeland, and the breed became central to Diné life and weaving.

It has been nearly destroyed twice, both times by the United States government. Soldiers slaughtered Diné flocks during the campaigns of 1863, and the federal Livestock Reduction program of the 1930s culled the flocks again. Restoration work began in the 1970s from remnant flocks.

In Diné the sheep are Dibé dits'ozí, the long-fleeced sheep.

The fleece is a double coat: a fine to medium inner wool, about 80 percent of the fleece, protected by long coarse outer hair, with a small fraction of kemp. It grows in fourteen natural colors, and it is the wool the famous rugs and blankets are woven from: lustrous, strong and durable.

Weights are modest and the sources differ. The Livestock Conservancy puts rams around 160 pounds and ewes at 80 to 120; Wikipedia gives rams 121 to 187 and ewes 88 to 132. Faces, legs and bellies are wool-free.

Horns vary: an animal may be polled, two-horned, or carry four or more. Some rams have four fully developed horns, a trait shared with few other breeds in the world.

Alert and intelligent, by the Conservancy's description. These are rangeland sheep, at their best moving across country rather than standing in a pen.

The sheep suit transhumance, moving with the season from dry rangeland up to high country. Ewes mother strongly and lamb without much help.

Wool, meat, milk and pelts, and the wool comes first. The fleece is a weaving wool, and the breed's survival is bound up with Diné weaving.

The meat is lean with a distinctly light flavor, and the milk is high in cream; both have their own followings.

Range and season. They were shaped by moving between dry rangeland and high country, and they handle rough forage and hard weather that would pull a better-fed breed down.

The experience needed depends on how you run them, which is why the Conservancy rates them anywhere from novice to expert by production system.

The Livestock Conservancy lists the Navajo-Churro as Critical. The count had recovered to over 8,000 head by 2022, but the recovery is recent and the base is narrow.

This is also a breed whose conservation is cultural as much as genetic. The flocks and the weaving tradition sustain each other, and registered stock supports both.

If you are buying for fiber, ask about fleece type and horn set, because both vary widely inside the breed.

The Navajo-Churro Sheep Association keeps the flock book. It is an open registry: sheep are approved against the breed standard by inspection, from photographs and fleece samples if not in person. Ask for the registration paperwork and the fleece records together.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.