Animal

Navajo-Churro sheep

Ovis aries (Navajo-Churro line)

Also known as: Navajo Churro, Diné sheep

A heritage sheep breed central to Diné (Navajo) and Pueblo cultural and economic life since the 16th century. Descended from Iberian Churra sheep brought to the American Southwest by Spanish colonial expeditions in the 1500s; selected by Diné herders over four centuries on the Colorado Plateau's high-desert and mountain ecology. Distinctive double-coat (long outer fiber, soft inner fiber) producing the wool that anchors traditional Navajo weaving — the rugs, blankets, and weavings that are among the most-recognized Indigenous textile traditions in the world. Federally driven sheep-reduction programs under John Collier and the BIA in the 1930s and 1940s killed approximately 50% of Diné sheep flocks (the *kíídiilį́į́* / Long Walk to Bosque Redondo era of forced cultural disruption); the breed was nearly destroyed. Recovery began in the 1970s through the Diné be' iiná (Navajo Lifeway) movement and the Navajo Sheep Project. The Livestock Conservancy classifies the breed as Threatened.

Cultural

Spanish colonial expeditions brought Iberian Churra sheep to the American Southwest beginning in the late 16th century. The Diné (Navajo people) acquired sheep from Spanish settlements and Pueblo neighbors in the 17th and 18th centuries; sheep husbandry became central to Diné cultural and economic life by the early 19th century. Four centuries of selection on the [[colorado-plateau|Colorado Plateau]]‘s high-desert and mountain ecology — combined with the Diné herding-and-weaving tradition — produced the modern Navajo-Churro sheep: small, hardy, drought-and-cold-tolerant, with the distinctive double coat that supports traditional weaving.

The breed and the people who raised it suffered devastating disruption in the 1860s (Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, with sheep flocks destroyed during forced removal) and again in the 1930s–1940s (the John Collier-era BIA sheep-reduction programs, which killed approximately 50% of the surviving Diné flocks under the rationale of preventing range overgrazing — but in effect dismantling the economic and cultural base of much of the Diné nation). By the 1970s the Navajo-Churro breed was nearly extinct, with fewer than 500 surviving animals on a few traditional herding family lines.

Recovery has been led by the Diné community: Diné be’ iiná (Navajo Lifeway) and the Navajo Sheep Project, both founded in the 1970s, supported the rebuilding of the breed in collaboration with non-Diné conservation breeders. The Navajo-Churro Sheep Association maintains the modern breed registry. Population today is approximately 5,000 breeding animals, concentrated on the Navajo Nation and at heritage-breed farms in the Southwest. [[livestock-conservancy|The Livestock Conservancy]] classifies the breed as Threatened.

The wool remains the foundation of traditional Diné weaving — Navajo rugs, blankets, and tapestries woven on traditional looms with hand-spun churro wool are among the most-recognized Indigenous textile traditions in the world.

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Cultural

See also

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