In the late 1800s, Navajo weaving was undergoing a transition from wearing apparel to the "rug" styles we know of today.

J.B. Moore, who owned the trading post in Crystal, New Mexico from 1897-1911, was a visionary trader like Don Lorenzo Hubbell and C.N. Cotton before him.  These traders exercised enormous influence over early Navajo rug designs.  Perhaps Moore's most important innovation was to introduce weavers in his region to rug patterns strongly reminiscent of Oriental rug designs that were so popular at that time in the eastern United States.  The look usually featured strong borders surrounding light colored backgrounds that contained "floating" design elements.  A central motif in one, two or three parts, covered almost all of the ground between the borders.

The regional styles of Teec Nos Pos, the Storm pattern and Toadelena/Two Grey HIlls are believed to have been an outgrowth of the early Crystal style.  The style changed dramatically in the 1940s to a simpler, borderless, banded style using mostly vegetal dyes in earth-toned hues.