The premise needs correcting
Loom-woven textiles, such as rugs, blankets and wearing blankets, are not a traditional Apache craft. They belong to the Navajo (Diné) and Pueblo peoples of the Southwest. Pueblo weavers worked with cotton and wool on upright looms long before the arrival of Spanish colonists, and the Navajo, who are Apachean relatives but a separate nation, are generally understood to have adopted weaving through contact with Pueblo neighbors, then developed it into their own distinctive art. The Navajo Nation is a distinct nation from the Apache nations, and its weaving is its own.
That does not mean Apache peoples made no woven or twisted goods. “Weaving” in an Apache context mostly refers to basketry, along with cordage and other fiber work, and to the sewing of hide and cloth. The mix-up is common because Apachean languages are related, because Apache and Navajo neighbors lived near each other, and because trade goods circulated widely.
Basketry as Apache weaving
Basketry is the closest Apache equivalent to weaving, since baskets are made by interlacing plant strands. Twining is a form of weaving in a technical sense, using paired weft strands crossed between upright elements, and coiling is a related fiber technique that is stitched rather than interwoven.
Western Apache makers are widely known for twined burden baskets and water jars and for coiled trays and bowls. Jicarilla and Mescalero makers also produced baskets. The point here is that basketry fulfills the role that cloth weaving plays elsewhere: it is the major textile-like art of the Apache peoples, made in large quantities, finely finished and widely traded.
Cordage, nets and ties
Plant fibers were twisted into cord and rope. Yucca leaves are a commonly cited source: the long fibers can be separated and twisted, and the plant also supplied other materials. Cordage was used for bundling, carrying, binding frames and tying pieces together, and also for straps and fastenings on baskets and cradleboards. Hide strips and sinew served similar purposes. This is humble work compared with baskets, but it appears in many ethnographic accounts of daily life.
Sources describe sewing and lashing more often than weaving, and they sometimes disagree about specific techniques or groups, so it is better to stay general than to assert detailed claims. Yucca uses ranged from food to fiber to soap, which is one reason the plant appears so often in accounts of Apache material life.
Cloth in Apache clothing
From the Spanish colonial period onward, and especially in the nineteenth century, Apache people obtained cloth through trade and the agencies, as did many Native peoples, and cloth became part of clothing. Calico, cotton and wool fabrics were sewn into dresses and shirts. The cloth Apache camp dress and the long skirts and blouses seen in photographs from the reservation period are sewing traditions that built on available cloth. They are not weaving, since the cloth was made elsewhere, but the cutting, sewing and decorating represent a skilled art and remain part of traditional Apache clothing for many families. Cloth clothing for ceremonies and public events is made with similar care.
Where blankets and rugs fit in
Apache households did acquire woven blankets, mainly through trade and sometimes as gifts, and woven items from Pueblo and Navajo makers appear in historical records. The presence of such an item in a collection labeled “Apache” does not show it was made by an Apache weaver. Likewise, modern “Apache” rugs sold in shops are not necessarily Apache work, and buyers should ask who made the piece and which nation the maker belongs to. This matters in a market where Native-style textiles are widely imitated.
Some Apache individuals today may learn loom weaving from teachers in other communities, since artists in the Southwest share ideas. That is a contemporary choice by individuals and does not change the historical picture.
Why the distinction matters
Treating all Southwestern Native crafts as interchangeable erases real differences between nations. Apache peoples have their own strong arts, and the long public attention to Navajo rugs sometimes overshadows them. The clearer approach is to describe each nation’s work by its own terms: basketry, beadwork, hide work and fiber work for the Apache; loom weaving and silverwork for the Navajo; and pottery, weaving and many other arts for the Pueblos, who are themselves separate communities with different traditions.
Learning more
For an accurate overview, start with the craft traditions of each Apache nation, and with museums, books by Native authors and the nations’ own official sources. Details of current cultural programs change, so the Apache nations’ official websites are the best source for current information.