The region of weaving on the west side of Navajoland is as large as some eastern states. The region is roughly 120 by 50 miles, from Coppermine on the west to Chilchinbito on the east, from Kaibito on the north to Tuba City on the south. Other weaving centers in their region are Shonto Inscription House, Kerley’s Trading Post, Cameron, The Gap, Paiute Mesa, Navajo Mountain, and Cedar Ridge. For these far-flung communities, Tuba City functions as something of a satellite capital.

Exciting innovation has bypassed the weaving of the western Reservation. Prevailing styles date to early 1900s-conventional geometric with borders in black, white, brown, and gray in natural tones, and aniline red vegetal dyes occasionally appear, but there seems to be no acceleration in this direction. No better saddle blanket is made that of Inscription House.

The best-known, most easily recognizable pattern of this area is the Tuba City Storm, which is woven at other places besides Tuba City. No style has attracted more contradictory lore. One tale ascribes the origin to a pattern printed on sacks of flour shipped to western Navajoland in the early days. Then again, since J.B. Moore of Crystal, New Mexico, included a storm pattern in his 1911 catalog, it may have sprung from one of his patterns. Still another possible origin is from a Tonalea trader with a keen appreciation for what paleface rug buyers expected in the way of Indian symbolism.

Borders of storm patterns seem electrified by zigzags or contrasting steps. Against a usually gray background in the middle is an elaborate square, “the center of the world.” In the four corners are smaller colored squares or rectangles, “the houses of the wind, the four sacred mountains.” Strong zigzag lines, “lighting,” join corner boxes with the center as if charging the entire rug with white, slashing thunderbolts. For an extra measure some storms include swastikas and stylized water beetles.