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Navajo
(Diné)
Navajo medicine man
Regions with significant populations
United States (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, California and Northern Mexico)
Languages
Navajo, English, Spanish
Religion
Navajo way, Christianity, Native American Church (NAC), other
Related ethnic groups
other Southern Athabascan peoples

The Navajo people (or Diné) of the Southwestern United States are the second largest Native American tribe in North America, with 298,197 people claiming to be full or partial Navajo in the 2000 U.S. census.[1]. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the Four Corners area of the United States. The traditional Navajo language is still largely spoken throughout the region, although most Navajo also speak English fluently as well. The Navajo people call themselves Diné, which is translated "The People" in English.

History

Early history

The Navajo speak dialects of the language family referred to as Athabaskan. In addition to Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, Athabaskan speakers are also found living in Alaska, through west-central Canada and in a few areas on the Pacific coast. Linguistic and cultural similarities indicate the Navajo and other Southern Athabaskan speakers, known today as Apache, were once a single ethnic group that probably came from the Great Slave Lake area having crossed the Bering land bridge thousands of years previously. In present-day Canada, an aboriginal people known as Dené still live in the far north, centered around Great Slave Lake but also with communities in the far north of adjacent provinces. Despite the thousand years that has elapsed, these people reportedly can still understand the language of their long-lost cousins, the Navajo.[citation needed] Archaeological and historical evidence suggests that the Navajo ancestors (linguistically called Apachean) entered the Southwest after 1000 AD, with substantial population increases occurring in the 13th century. The Spanish noted the presence of a significant population in the 16th century. Navajo oral traditions are said to retain references of this migration.[2]

Present-day primary locations of Southern Athabaskan peoples
Navajo winter hogan, Utah circa 1880
Navajo cornfield, circa 1880

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado observed Plains people ("dog nomads") wintering near the Pueblos in established camps, who may have included Navajo. In 1540 Coronado reported the modern Western Apache area as uninhabited, yet in the 1580s other Spaniards first mention Apache living west of the Rio Grande who shared corn with them. The early Athabaskan way of life complicates accurate dating, primarily because they constructed less durable dwellings than other Southwestern groups. They also left behind a more austere set of tools and material goods. Sites where early Athabaskans speakers may have lived are difficult to locate and even more difficult to identify firmly as culturally Athabaskan.

Whenever the Navajo actually arrived, they occupied areas the Pueblos peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Navajo people traditionally hold the four sacred mountains as the boundaries of the homeland they should never leave: Blanca Peak (Tsisnaasjini' — Dawn or White Shell Mountain) in Colorado, Mount Taylor (Tsoodzil — Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain) in New Mexico, the San Francisco Peaks (Doko'oosliid — Abalone Shell Mountain) in Arizona, and Hesperus Mountain (Dibé Nitsaa — Big Mountain Sheep) in Colorado.

Navajo oral history seems to indicate a long relationship with Pueblo people[3] and a willingness to adapt ideas into their own culture. Trade between the long-established Pueblo peoples and the Athabaskans was important to both groups. The Spanish records say by the mid 16th century, the Pueblos exchanged maize and woven cotton goods for bison meat, hides and material for stone tools from Athabaskans who either traveled to them or lived around them. In the 18th century the Spanish report that the Navajo had large numbers of livestock and large areas of crops. The Navajo probably adapted many Pueblo ideas, as well as practices of early Spanish settlers, into their own very different culture.

The Spanish first use the word Navajo ("Apachu de Nabajo") specifically in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River and northwest of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navajo was applied to these same people. The Spanish recorded in 1670s they were living in a region called Dinetah, which was about sixty miles (100 km) west of the Rio Chama valley region. In the 1780s the Spanish were sending military expeditions against the Navajo in the southwest and west of that area, in the Mount Taylor and Chuska Mountain regions of New Mexico.

Navajos seem to have a history in the last 1,000 years of expanding their range, refining their self identity and their significance to others. This probably resulted from a cultural combination of Endemic warfare(raids) and commerce with the Pueblo, Apache, Ute, Comanche and Spanish people, set in the changing natural environment of the Southwest.

Conflict with Europeans

Navajo conflicts with European invaders spanned over a 300 year period. From a Navajo perspective, Europeans were considered another tribe. Traditionally, different towns, villages or pueblos were probably viewed as separate tribes or bands by Navajo groups.

The Spanish started to establish a military force along the Rio Grande in the 17th century to the east of Dinetah (the Navajo homeland). Spanish records indicate that Apachean groups (that might include Navajo) allied themselves with the Pueblos over the next 21 years, successfully pushing the Spaniards out of this area following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Raiding and trading were part of traditional Apachean and Navajo culture, and these activities increased following the introduction of the horse by the Spaniards, which increased the efficiency and frequency of raiding expeditions. The Spanish established a series of forts that protected new Spanish settlements and also separated the Pueblos from the Apacheans. The Spaniards and later Mexicans recorded what are called punitive expeditions among the Navajo that also took livestock and human captives. The Navajo in turn raided settlements far away in a similar manner. This pattern continued, with the Athabaskan groups apparently growing to be more formidable foes through the 1840s until the United States Army arrived in the area.

New Mexico Territory

Manuelito, Navajo chief

Officially, the Navajos first came in contact with forces of the United States of America in 1846 when General Stephen W. Kearny invaded Santa Fe with 1,600 men during the Mexican American War. The Navajo did not recognize the change of government as legitimate. In September, Kearny sent two detachments to raid and subdue the Navajo. Kearny later took 300 men on an expedition to California from Santa Fe. As they traveled past Navajo homelands, his force lost livestock. He ordered another expedition against the Navajo, and this resulted in the first treaty with the United States government in November at Canyon de Chelly.

In the next 10 years, the U.S. established forts in traditional Navajo territory. Military records state this was to protect citizens and Navajo from each other. However the old Spanish/Mexican-Navajo pattern of raids and expeditions against one another continued. New Mexican (citizen and militia) raids increased rapidly in 1860–61 earning it the Navajo name Naahondzood, "the fearing time." They also have to eat other things to survive.

In 1861 Brigadier-General James H. Carleton, the new commander of the Federal District of New Mexico, initiated a series of military actions against the Navajo. Colonel Kit Carson was ordered by Carleton to conduct expedition into Navajoland and receive their surrender on July 20, 1863. A few Navajo surrendered. Carson was joined by a large group of New Mexican militia volunteer citizens and these forces moved through Navajo land killing Navajos and destroying any Navajo crops, livestock or dwellings they came across. Facing starvation, Navajos groups started to surrender in what is known as The Long Walk.

Navajo prisoners of Kit Carson in 1864 forced on what Navajo call "the Long Walk"

Long Walk

Main article: Long Walk of the Navajo

Starting in the spring of 1864, around 9,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced on The Long Walk of over 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This was the largest reservation attempted by the U.S. government. It was a failure for a combination of reasons. It was designed to supply water, wood, supplies, and livestock for 4,000–5,000 people, it had one kind of crop failure after another, other tribes and civilians were able to raid the Navajo, and a small group of Mescalero Apaches had been moved there. In 1868 a treaty was negotiated that allowed the surviving Navajos to return to a reservation that was a portion of their former range.

Reservation life

The military continued to maintain the forts. Some Navajo were employed by the military as "Indian Scouts" through 1895. A Navajo Tribal Police operated between 1872 and 1875 and was used by the Navajo themselves to stop raiders from their tribe; it was created by Manuelito.

By treaty, the Navajo people were allowed to leave the reservation with permission to trade. Raiding by the Navajo essentially stopped, because they were able to increase the size of their livestock and crops, and not have to risk losing them to others. However, while the initial reservation increased from 3.5 million acres (14,000 km²) to the 16 million acres (65,000 km²) of today, economic conflicts with the non-Navajo continued. Civilians and companies raided resources that had been assigned to the Navajo. Livestock grazing leases, land for railroads, mining permits are a few examples of actions taken by agencies of the U.S. government who could and did do such things on a regular basis.

Navajo woman & child

Regional newspapers have many accounts of Navajo and non-Navajo conflicts in this period. These conflicts were often embellished by regional politicians. In some of these accounts, every Navajo was just about to leave the reservation and pillage the country side or worse. While it is probably true that some Navajo strayed, it is equally true that some white citizens clearly strayed from the laws of the land themselves. In their reports, the U.S. Military never seemed to be that alarmed about a Navajo uprising, and they clearly did not want the Navajo stirred up by their neighbors.

In 1883, Lt. Parker with 10 Enlisted men and 2 Scouts went up to the San Juan River to separate Navajos and citizens who encroached on Navajo land. In the same year, Lt. Lockett with the aid of 42 enlisted soldiers were joined by Lt. Holomon at Navajo Springs. Evidently citizen Houck and/or Owens had murdered a Navajo Chief's son and 100 armed Navajos were looking for them.

In 1887, Citizens Palmer, Lockhart and King fabricate a charge of horse stealing and attack a random home on the reservation. 2 Navajo men and all 3 whites died but a woman and a child survived. Capt Kerr (with 2 Navajo Scouts) examines the ground and then meets with several hundred Navajo at Houcks Tank. Rancher Bennett whose horse was allegedly stolen, pointed out to Kerr that his horses were stolen by the 3 whites to catch a horse thief. In the same year, Lt. Scott with 2 scouts and 21 men go to the San Juan River. The Navajo believe he is there to drive off the whites who have settled on the reservation and fenced off the river from the Navajo. Scott tells them to wait. He finds evidence of many ranches but only 3 are active and they refuse to leave, wanting payment for their improvements. Scott ejected them.

In 1890, a local rancher refuses to pay Navajo a fine of livestock, Navajos tried to collect it and whites in southern Colorado and Utah claim 9,000 Navajo are on a warpath. A small military detachment out of Ft. Wingate restores white citizens to order.

In 1913, an Indian Agent orders a Navajo and his 3 wives to come in, then arrests them for having a plural marriage. A small group of Navajo use force to free the women and retreat to Beautiful Mountain with 30 or 40 sympathizers. They refuse to surrender to the Agent. Local law enforcement and military refuse the Agent's request for an armed engagement. General Scott arrives and with help of Chee Dodge defuses the situation.

In the 1930s, the United States government took action against the Navajo that was as culturally and economically devastating as the Long Walk. The United States government claimed Navajo's livestock was overgrazing the land. In another experiment, it decided to immediately kill over 80% of their livestock in what is known as the Navajo Livestock Reduction and start a permit system.

Culture

A Navajo boy riding horseback, in 2007, in Monument Valley, Arizona

The name "Navajo" comes from the late 18th century via the Spanish (Apaches de) Navajó "(Apaches of) Navajó", which was derived from the Tewa navahū "fields adjoining a ravine". The Navajo call themselves Diné, which is translated to mean "the people" (most Native American groups call themselves by names that mean "the people"). Nonetheless, most Navajo now acquiesce to being called "Navajo."

Traditionally, like other Apacheans, the Navajo were semi-nomadic in the 16th century into the 20th century. Their extended kinship groups would have seasonal dwelling areas to accommodate livestock, agriculture and gathering practices. As part of their traditional economy, Navajo groups may have formed trading or raiding parties, traveling relatively long distances.

A Navajo man working as a tourist guide, in 2007, in Monument Valley, Arizona

Historically, the structure of the Navajo society is largely a matrilocal system in which only women were allowed to own livestock and land. Once married, a Navajo man would move into his bride's dwelling and clan since daughters (or, if necessary, other female relatives) were traditionally the ones who received the generational inheritance. Any children are said to belong to the mother's clan and be "born for" the father's clan. The clan system is exogamous, meaning it was, and mostly still is, considered a form of incest to marry or date anyone from any of a person's four grandparents clans.

Navajo hogan

A hogan is the traditional Navajo home. For those who practice the Navajo religion the hogan is considered sacred. The doorway of the hogan was opened to the east so they could welcome the sun. The religious song "The Blessingway" describes the first hogan as being built by Coyote with help from beavers to be a house for First Man, First Woman, and Talking God. The Beaver People gave Coyote logs and instructions on how to build the first hogan. Navajos made their hogans in the traditional fashion until the 1900s, when they started to make them in hexagonal and octagonal shapes. Today they are rarely used as actual dwellings, but are maintained primarily for ceremonial purposes.

Arts and craftsmanship

Navajo weaver with sheep

Silversmithing is said to have been introduced to the Navajo while in captivity at Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico in 1864. At that time Atsidi Saani learned the silversmithing and began teaching others the craft as well. By 1880 Navajo silversmiths were creating handmade jewelry including bracelets, tobacco flasks, necklaces, bow guards and eventually evolved into earrings, buckles, bolos, hair ornaments and pins. Turquoise had been used with jewelry by the Navajo for hundreds of years, but they did not use turquoise inlay.

Though some people say the Navajo learned the art of weaving from the Ute Tribe, the origins of Navajo weaving may never be known. The first Spaniards to visit the region wrote about seeing Navajo blankets. By the 18th century the Navajo had begun to import yarn with their favorite color, Bayeta red. Using an upright loom the Navajos made almost exclusively utilitarian blankets. Little patterning and few colors on almost all blankets, except for the much sought after Chief's Blanket, which evolved from the 1st Phase, few wide bands, to the 2nd phase, wide bands with squares on the corners, to the 3rd Phase, which made more and more use of patterns and colors. Around the same time the Navajo people, who had long started traded for commercial wool, often from the uniforms of soldiers, rewove these into intricate multicolored blankets called Germantown.

Navajo art

Some early European settlers moved in and set up trading posts, often buying Navajo Rugs by the pound and selling them back east by the bale. Still these traders encouraged the locals to weave blankets and rugs into distinct styles. They included "Two Gray Hills" (predominantly black and white, with traditional patterns), "Teec Nos Pos" (colorful, with very extensive patterns), "Ganado" (founded by Don Lorenzo Hubbell), red dominated patterns with black and white, "Crystal" (founded by J. B. Moore), oriental and Persian styles (almost always with natural dyes), "Wide Ruins", "Chinlee", banded geometric patterns, "Klagetoh", diamond type patterns, "Red Mesa" and bold diamond patterns. Many of these patterns exhibit a fourfold symmetry, which is thought by Gary Witherspoon to embody traditional ideas about harmony or Hozh.

Healing and spiritual practices

Navajo man in ceremonial dress with mask and body paint, c. 1904.

Navajo spiritual practice is about restoring health, balance, and harmony to a person's life. One exception to the concept of healing is the Beauty Way ceremony: the Kinaaldá, or a female puberty ceremony. Others include the Hooghan Blessing Ceremony and the "Baby's First Laugh Ceremony." Otherwise, ceremonies are used to heal illnesses, strengthen weakness, and give vitality to the patient. Ceremonies restore Hozhò, or beauty, harmony, balance, and health.

When suffering from illness or injury, Navajos will traditionally seek out a certified, credible Hatałii (medicine man) for healing, before turning to Western medicine (e.g., hospitals). The medicine man will use several methods to diagnose the patient's ailments. This may include using special tools such as crystal rocks, and abilities such as hand-trembling and Hatał (chanting prayer). The medicine man will then select a specific healing chant for that type of ailment. Short prayers for protection may only take a few hours, and in some cases, the patient is expected to do a follow-up afterwards. This may include the avoidance of sexual relations, personal contact, animals, certain foods, and certain activities; it is not unlike a doctor's advice.

Possible causes of ailments could be the result of violating taboos. Contact with lightning-struck objects, exposure to taboo animals such as snakes, and contact with the dead are some of reasons for healing. Protection ceremonies, especially the Blessing Way Ceremony, are used for Navajos that leave the boundaries of the four sacred mountains, and is used extensively for Navajo warriors or soldiers going to war. Upon re-entry, there is an Enemy Way Ceremony, or Nidáá', performed on the person, to get rid of the evil things in his/her body, and to restore balance in his/her life. This is also important for Navajo warriors/soldiers returning from battle. Warriors or soldiers often suffer spiritual or psychological damage from participating in warfare, and the Enemy Way Ceremony helps restore harmony to the person, mentally and emotionally. They Also practised the strict rituals empowering the rodents and dogs to run wild and free into there homes. They did this with the hope that the great white-man-god(as he was referred to by the people)would not come down and smack them across the hotyoius(a bone only possessed by the navajo people.

There are also ceremonies used for curing people from curses. Many people often complain of witches and skin-walkers that do harm to their minds, bodies, and even families. Ailments aren't necessarily physical. It can take any form it wishes. The medicine man is often able to break the curses that witches and skin-walkers put on families. Mild cases do not take very long, but for extreme cases, special ceremonies are needed to drive away the evil spirits. In these cases, the medicine man may find curse objects implanted inside the victim's body. These objects are used to cause the person pain and illness. Examples of such objects include bone fragments, rocks and pebbles, bits of string, snake teeth, owl feathers, and even turquoise jewelry.

There are said to be approximately fifty-eight to sixty sacred ceremonies. Most of them last four days or more; to be most effective, they require that relatives and friends attend and help out. Outsiders are often discouraged from participating, in case they become a burden on everyone, or violate a taboo. This could affect the turnout of the ceremony. The ceremony must be done in precisely the correct manner to heal the patient, and this includes everyone that is involved.

Medicine men must be able to correctly perform a ceremony from beginning to end. If he does not, the ceremony will not work. Training a Hatałii to perform ceremonies is extensive, arduous, and takes many years, and is not unlike priesthood, with the governing body or hierarchy omitted. The apprentice learns everything by watching his teacher, and memorizes the words to all the chants. Many times, a medicine man cannot learn all sixty of the ceremonies, so he will opt to specialize in a select few.

The origin of spiritual healing ceremonies dates back to Navajo mythology. It is said the first Enemy Way ceremony was performed for Changing Woman's twin sons (Monster Slayer and Born-For-the-Water) after slaying the Giants (the Yé'ii) and restoring Hozhó to the world and people. The patient identifies with Monster Slayer through the chants, prayers, sandpaintings, herbal medicine and dance.

Another Navajo healing, the Night Chant ceremony, is administered as a cure for most types of head ailments, including mental disturbances. The ceremony, conducted over several days, involves purification, evocation of the gods, identification between the patient and the gods, and the transformation of the patient. Each day entails the performance of certain rites and the creation of detailed sand paintings. On the ninth evening a final all-night ceremony occurs, in which the dark male thunderbird god is evoked in a song that starts by describing his home:

In Tsegihi [White House],
In the house made of the dawn,
In the house made of the evening light
(Sandner, p. 88)

The medicine man proceeds by asking the Holy People to be present, then identifying the patient with the power of the god and describing the patient's transformation to renewed health with lines such as "Happily I recover." (Sandner, p. 90). The same dance is repeated throughout the night, about forty eight times. Altogether the Night Chant ceremony takes about ten hours to perform, and ends at dawn.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2000" (PDF). Census 2000 Brief. 2002-02-01. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
  2. ^ For example, the Great Canadian Parks website suggests that the Navajo may be descendants the lost Naha tribe, a Slavey tribe from the Nahanni region west of Great Slave Lake. "Nahanni National Park Reserve". Great Canadian Parks. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  3. ^ Hosteen Klah page 102 and others

References

  • Bailey, L. R. (1964). The Long Walk: A History of the Navaho Wars, 1846–1868.
  • Bighorse, Tiana. (1990). Bighorse the Warrior. Ed. Noel Bennett, Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
  • Brown, Dee (1970). Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. ISBN 0-330-23219-3.
  • Brugge, David M. (1968). Navajos in the Catholic Church Records of New Mexico 1694–1875. Window Rock, Arizona: Reseach Section, The Navajo Tribe. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Clarke, Dwight L. (1961). Stephen Watts Kearny: Soldier of the West. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press a
  • Downs, James F. (1972). The Navajo. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
  • Dyke, Walter (1967). Son of Old Man Hat. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books & University of Nebraska Press. LCCN 44-2654. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |orginyear= ignored (help)
  • Forbes, Jack D. (1960). Apache, Navajo and Spaniard. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. LCCN 60-13480.
  • Gilpin, Laura. (1968). The Enduring Navaho. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Gold, Peter (1994). Navajo & Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: The Circle of the Spirit. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International. ISBN 0-89281-411-X..
  • Hammond, George P. and Rey, Agapito (editors) (1940). Narratives of the Coronado Expedition 1540–1542. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  • Henderson, Richard.(1994). “Replicating Dog Travois Travel on the Northern Plains.” Plains Anthropologist, V39:145–59
  • Iverson, Peter. (2002). Diné: A History of the Navahos. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-2714-1
  • Kelly, Lawrence (1970). Navajo Roundup, Pruett Pub. Co., Colorado.
  • Kluckholm, Clyde & Leighton, Dorothea (1946). The Navaho. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.
  • Loewen, James. W. (1999). Lies Across America. Pages 100–101; The New Press.
  • McNitt, Frank. (1972). Navajo Wars. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  • Newcomb, Franc Johnson (1964). Hosteen Klah: Navajo Medicine Man and Sand Painter. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. LCCCN 64-20759. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and London, LTD, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.
  • Compiled (1973). Roessel, Ruth (editor). Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period. Tsaile, Arizona: Navajo Community College Press.
  • Compiled (1974). Roessel, Ruth (ed.). Navajo Livestock Reduction: A National Disgrace. Tsaile, Arizona: Navajo Community College Press. ISBN 0-912586-18-4.
  • Terrell, J. U. (1970). The Navajos.
  • Underhill, Ruth M. (1956). The Navahos. Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Witherspoon, Gary. (1977). Language and Art in the Navajo Universe. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
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