Navajo weavers behind Fairchild's most successful chip plant with remarkably low defect rates

ctjlewis · x · 2026-09-13

A vintage photo shows Navajo weaver Marilou Schultz (1954-) with her woven 'chip' textile. Fairchild Semiconductor's plant in Shiprock employed about 1,200 people, mostly Navajo women, and became one of the company's most successful plants with unbelievably low defect rates.

Fairchild even closed one of its pamphlets with a traditional Navajo chant, the Song of the Earth Spirit — a little-known intersection of chip history and Indigenous labor history.

Related event: Navajo Weaver Recreates Pentium Chip in Traditional Tapestry(3 posts)→

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