Navajo-Churro Sheep

The Navajo-Churro, or Churro, is a North American sheep breed descended from Spanish Churra sheep brought to the continent in 1598 by Juan de Onate; the Dine (Navajo) people acquired the animals through trade by the seventeenth century, and the breed became central to Navajo pastoral life in the American Southwest. It is a small, hardy sheep with long thin tails, horizontal ears and a narrow body, and many rams carry two or, unusually among sheep, four fully developed horns; its double-coated fleece, naturally occurring in fourteen colours, is prized for traditional weaving. The breed supplies wool, meat, milk and pelts, and remains productive for up to fifteen years; listed as at risk by DAD-IS and critical by The Livestock Conservancy, it has recovered from near loss since the 1970s to more than 8,000 animals by 2022.