The philosophy of a people determines that people's destiny. The foundation of Navajo life is s[?]'ah naagháí bik'eh hózhóón, a practical concept that guarantees success when applied. This concept may be translated and interpreted as the beauty of life created by application of teachings that work. Historically and traditionally, the Navajos have always chosen to adapt and adopt, to change and Navajoize. Their ability to embrace change has allowed them to succeed in coping with an environment that has brought them into contact with other people.
The Navajos believe that they passed through different worlds before they arrived in the Southwest, the Fourth World. Their recollections of prehistoric times portray a hunting-gathering society coming into contact with different people, interacting with them, and, finally, being asked to leave for having committed adultery or having offended their hosts in some way. A close analysis of the different prehistoric worlds in Navajo oral tradition reveals details that give merit to the Bering Strait migration theory. The First World or the Black World is, in its physical description, representative of a tundra biome, possibly the Far North. The Second World or the Blue-Green World possesses a landscape of landmarks and animals similar to that of western and central Canada. The Third World or the Yellow World touches upon mountains and plains reminiscent of the eastern slope of the Rockies and the Southwest. The Fourth World or the Glittering World brings us to Dinétah, the Gobernador region in northwestern New Mexico. Whether either the Navajo genesis story or the Bering Strait theory is true, the fact remains that the Navajos have always progressed intellectually, physically, socially, and spiritually. The story of their journey to and settlement in the Southwest is one of wanderers becoming a people. This process lies at the center of the Navajos' sense of their history.
There is also a broad area of agreement concerning the Navajo language. The Navajos speak a language that belongs to the Southern Athabaskan family, a language group that is also common to Apachean peoples, including those known as Jicarillas, Mescaleros, and White Mountain Apaches. The Southern Athabaskan language group is a subgroup of the broader language group known as Na-Dene. Other subgroups of Na-Dene are found in northern and central Canada. Stories of the Black World state that there was originally the One Language, which spoke and gave movement to creation, and that the One Language became four. The Navajo people also refer to diné nááhódlóonii, "the other people." The name Navajo is a modified Tewa word meaning "cultivated fields." The Spaniards knew the Navajo people as Apaches de Navajó. Eventually, the name was shortened to Navajo. However, the Navajo people call themselves Diné, the People.
When the People arrived in the Southwest, they left archaeological evidence indicating that they had no organized ceremonialism or belief system. The remains of their lifestyle during the Dinétah Phase (circa a.d. 1375-1650) clearly points to their way of life as a hunting-gathering society. The clan system was not in place. They knew little about planting corn and squash. They made only crude utility pots. Patterns and structures were not important. Ash piles mixed with broken pottery have been found, and evidence indicates that shelters had doors facing in all directions. Attempts to build Pueblo-style housing apparently failed.
However, linguistic evidence shows that the People were more than willing to learn from new experiences. Diné offers many examples of coined words. Naad[?], "corn," was anaa' bid[?]'—the enemy's (or alien) food. Naayízí, "squash," was anaa' biyízí—the enemy's (or alien) oval thing. Anaasází, "Anasazi," was anaa' bizází—the enemy's (or alien) ancestors. These terms attest to the People's complete experience, acceptance, and modification of an alien culture to fit the Navajo way of life. The People continue to use all these foods, together with the stories and ceremonies associated with them.
During the Gobernador Phase (c. 1650-1775), the People grew as a people. They settled down from a hunting-gathering society to an agricultural, ranching, and ceremonial people. When they moved into the Southwest, the People met the Puebloan peoples. They acquired new farming techniques that increased their crop supply. They also acquired the rituals, songs, prayers, and stories that went along with farming. Most of their ceremonial knowledge was acquired from Pueblo priests who had fled from the intrusion of the Spaniards—especially the missionaries, who were determined to convert the "Indians" to Christianity. Consequently, the People learned about ceremonial life from the best in the field. Later, when the People got wealthier through the acquisition of sheep and horses, they created entire ceremonies of their own that included songs and prayers about sheep and horses. Sheep also provided wool, which allowed the People to become great weavers of blankets and rugs. Navajo women are now widely renowned for their beautiful weaving. The People obtained sheep, horses, and cattle from the Spaniards through trading or raiding. Navajo men also developed the art of silversmithing from their knowledge of blacksmithing, which they acquired from the Spaniards. Today Navajo people are well known for their jewelry making. Horses and cattle allowed the People to have a reliable food supply and to remain semi-nomadic. The mobility of their wealth allowed the People to move out of harm's way when the need arose.
During the Canyon de Chelly Phase (c. 1775-1863), the People moved west to the present-day Four Corners area and made Canyon de Chelly their stronghold. The move was caused by hostile pressures from the Spaniards from the south, the Comanches from the east, and the Utes from the north. Whenever possible the People retreated rather than fought, and they made no exception in this case. During this time the People became prosperous materially, artistically, and ceremonially—a development that led Nathaniel Patton to write in the Missouri Intelligencer in 1824 that the People were superior to the Plains Indians because they fashioned clothes, designed jewelry, raised livestock, and cultivated land. The People also increased in numbers. Yet this was all soon to pass.
American troops moved into the Southwest in 1846 during the Mexican War. From 1846 to 1863 several treaties were signed and broken. After several years of warfare and treaties, the People were subjugated and taken to Bosque Redondo, in eastern New Mexico, by U.S. military forces. More than eighty-five hundred Navajo men, women, and children were driven to Bosque Redondo after their fields, orchards, houses, and livestock were destroyed. There they were to be civilized: they were to go to school, till and own land, and worship as Christians. After four years of hard work and suffering on the part of the Navajos, the authorities recognized that their plan for Americanizing the People had failed. The Treaty of 1868 was negotiated and signed. Barboncito, the Navajo leader selected for the treaty negotiation, stated, "I hope to God you will not ask me to go to any other country except my own." The People went home.
The People returned to their land along the Arizona-New Mexico border hungry and in rags. Their territory had been reduced to an area much smaller than what they had occupied before the exodus to Bosque Redondo. The U.S. government issued them rations and sheep. Within a few years the People had multiplied the numbers of their livestock. The railroad arrived in 1880, and traders soon followed. The People began to trade maize, wool, mutton, hides, livestock, and crafts for food and manufactured goods. They became more sedentary and began a pastoral way of life. With the railroad came wage work, and the market economy began to emerge in Navajo country. In 1922 a business council was created to negotiate leases for natural resources found on the reservation—among them oil, natural gas, timber, uranium, and coal. This council eventually became the Navajo Nation Council, which now runs the Navajo government. The People have gained much from past experience, and today they are alive and well.
Personal growth is very significant in Navajo tradition. The stages of a person's life are recognized, accepted, and celebrated. A child's first laugh is an important event, and the person who makes a child laugh for the first time must host a dinner on the child's behalf. Relatives and friends are invited. A prayer is normally said before the feasting begins. People are served and form a line before the baby, who usually sits on the mother's lap. The mother holds a wedding basket containing earth salt. When people pass by with their plates full of food, the mother places a piece of earth salt in the child's right hand and assists the child in putting it on the food. This introduces the child to a lifelong sense of obligation to the family, the clan, and the People. The People believe that a person who has gone through this process will always share with and care for his people.
Another significant event in Navajo tradition is a girl's coming of age, which is marked by kinaaldá, the girls' puberty ceremony. According to Navajo tradition, when Changing Woman, a goddess, reached adulthood, Talking God performed this ceremony for her. It lasts for four days. Each morning at dawn the girl runs to the east; the last two days are reserved for singing, praying, and ritual activities. While the ceremony is going on, relatives and friends stop by to visit the girl's family, bringing food and eating. On the last night, the girl and her family, along with relatives, friends, and the local medicine person sit up all night and sing. In the morning, the girl runs to the east for the last time, and upon her return she cuts a corn cake that was prepared the day before and has been cooking underground all night long. The heart of the cake usually goes to the medicine person, and the rest goes to others who are present. After a girl has undergone this ceremony, she is ready for marriage. Recognition and acceptance are important in Navajo culture.
Many ceremonies are conducted over the course of the year. A medicine person conducts these ceremonies. Anyone can become a medicine person. One need only have the desire and patience to learn hundreds of songs, prayers, and rituals, and learn which are appropriate to which ceremony. A ceremony is a direct response to an illness. The Enemy Way Ceremony cleanses a person of foreign contagions; it is usually performed for someone who has killed an enemy and is suffering from the enemy's ghost. It lasts for three days and nights. The Night Way Ceremony, which lasts for nine days and nights, is usually performed for someone who is suffering from blindness or a physical deformity. Ideally, the Blessing Way Ceremony should be performed for a person after a ceremony for curing his or her illness has taken place.
When a person gets sick, he or she normally goes to a diagnostician first, called a star gazer or hand trembler, who tells the patient what caused the illness and recommends a particular ceremony and medicine person. Upon approval from the family, a prominent family member then goes to the medicine person and hires him or her to do the ceremony. The ceremony usually takes place at the patient's house, with the patient surrounded by friends, family members, and relatives. Depending on the illness and time of the year, the ceremony may be as short as fifteen minutes or as long as nine nights and days.
K'é—the Navajo kinship system—is the strength of the People. It keeps the Navajo people together. Navajo is a matrilineal and matrilocal society. Each Navajo belongs to four different, unrelated clans. He or she belongs to his or her mother's clan. He or she is born for his or her father's clan. He or she has maternal and paternal grandfathers' clans. Traditionally, the People were forbidden to marry into the first two clans; today they are still strongly discouraged from doing so. K'é also extends to the natural world and the gods. The People are always among relatives.
To get an idea of how k'é works, consider the following example. A Navajo meets another Navajo from the other side of the reservation. They may never have met before. When they meet, they ask one another about their clans and thus find out how they are related to one another. For example, if they find out that they belong to the same clan, they may, depending on their ages and sex, end up being brothers, sisters, mother and daughter, grandson and grandmother, and so forth. To take another example, if an older man meets a child and finds out that the child belongs to the same clan as the older man's father's clan, the child will automatically be promoted to the status of a father. The older man will no longer treat the child like a child, but will respect him like a father.
Contemporary community life varies from place to place. The Navajo Reservation covers parts of three states: northwestern New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, and southeastern Utah. It encompasses more than twenty-five thousand square miles, an area slightly larger than the state of West Virginia. There are about 220,000 Navajos today. While most of them reside on the reservation, a good portion leave the reservation to look for jobs. Others leave to pursue an education, some returning later on to work on the reservation.
Today the People live in frame houses, traditional hogans, and trailers. They work as ranchers, farmers, teachers, lawyers, judges, mechanics, professors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, medicine persons, and diagnosticians. They travel by horse, by automobile, and by plane. Some conduct and participate in traditional religious ceremonies, while others go to church on Sundays. A few continue to gather and cultivate food, and the majority go to nearby border towns to shop in malls and markets. They dress casually yet fashionably for comfort, formally when necessary, and traditionally for ceremonial purposes. They converse in Navajo, English, Spanish, and other languages. From weaving and silversmithing, their artistic expression has expanded to painting, literature, photography, videography, performing arts, sand painting, and ceramics, among other areas. Students attend public, Bureau of Indian Affairs, religious, and community schools. Their education extends from vocational to professional training. They receive degrees from local schools such as Navajo Community College and from prestigious universities such as Princeton. In short, the People are beginning to live again.
Sam Bingham and Janet Bingham, Between Sacred Mountains: Stories and Lessons from the Land (Chinle, Ariz.: Rock Point Community School, 1982); Peter Iverson, The Navajo Nation (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981).
Rex Lee Jim
Navajo
Rock Point Community School
Chinle, Arizona
