The Navajo is the largest American Indian tribe, with a population exceeding 160,000. The tribe's principal reservation covers more than 24,000 square miles (62,000 sq km) in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The most important Navajo craft is the weaving of fine rugs, which was learned from the Pueblo by 1700. Weaving traditionally is performed on upright looms by women. Also important is silversmithing, learned in the 19th century from Mexican craftsmen.

Typical craft objects include worked silver as well as turquoise jewelry often decorated with squash blossom symbols. The Navajo are considered to possess one of the best-preserved native American cultures in North America. The social structure is based on kinship bonds, with descent traced through the mother. The preferred pattern of the extended family, made up of at least two adult generations, is an older woman and her husband and unmarried children, plus her married daughters and their husbands and children.