This was one of the later Navajo weaving areas to evolve. Don Jacobs, Sr. was the trader at Burnt Water in 1968 when a woman named Philomena Yazzie walked in the door with a vegetal dye weaving in a geometric pattern.
Until this time, the three vegetal dye areas, Wide Ruins, Chinle and Crystal, all featured weavings woven in stripes, without borders. Jacob initially didn’t think the weavings would sell, but he was dead wrong. Later, Bruce Burnham took the post over and promoted the Burnt Water pattern.
When the trading post closed, Bruce opened up the Burnham Trading Post at Sanders which is still a source for Burnt Water weavings although most are now woven with aniline dyed single ply yarn in vegetal dye hues.