Navajo (people)

Navajo (people), Native Americans of the Athapaskan language family and of the Southwest culture area. The Navajo are one of the largest tribes in the United States. Their homelands are in what is now northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah, and southwestern Colorado. In the Navajo language their name is Diné or Dineh,meaning “The People.”

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HISTORY

The Navajo are closely related to the Apache; the ancestors of both peoples emigrated from western Canada and settled in the Southwest sometime between the 13th and 16th centuries. The Navajo lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers and carried out raids on the village-dwelling agricultural Pueblo Indians. They first came into conflict with the Spanish colonists in the 17th century and later with the Mexicans. From the Spanish they obtained horses, sheep, and goats, which became a vital part of their economy. They learned weaving and pottery making from the Pueblo Indians and silversmithing from the Mexicans.

In 1846 the Navajo nation made its first treaty with the U.S. government, but disagreements with American troops led to hostilities by 1849. The tribe engaged in sporadic warfare with the Americans until 1863. In that year U.S. forces under Kit Carson waged an extended campaign against the Navajo, who were led by Manuelito and other war chiefs. American troops destroyed Navajo homes and crops and confiscated their livestock, eventually capturing or forcing the surrender of some 12,000 Navajo people. Captives were sent on foot to a reservation at Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico. This forcible deportation is known in Navajo history as the “Long Walk.”

On the reservation, the tribe suffered severe hardships from disease and crop failures and faced hostility from Apache prisoners, also captured by U.S. troops. A new treaty was signed in 1868, and the surviving Navajo were allowed to go back to a reservation set aside in their former territory, where they were provided with sheep and cattle. In return, the tribe agreed to live in peace with the American settlers. In 1884 the reservation was extended to accommodate their increasing herds.

During the late 19th century the tribe prospered, the population doubled, and additional reservation lands were added. Since these were generally poor farming lands, few attempts were made by outsiders to encroach on the reservation. Greatly increased livestock holdings presented serious problems of soil erosion and overgrazing. Eventually a livestock-reduction plan was forced on the tribe by the U.S. government. During World War II (1939-1945) many Navajo left the reservation to serve in the armed forces or work in cities in war-related jobs. The Navajo Code Talkers became famous on the Pacific front, sending communications based on their native language that the Japanese were unable to decipher.

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CULTURE

The Navajo tribe was divided into more than 50 clans, and descent was traced through the female line. Tribal members were required to marry outside their clan. The Navajo, who arrived in the region as a nomadic and predatory people, came to build permanent homes called hogans,cone-shaped houses constructed of logs and poles. The hogans were covered with earth and bark and later built with six or eight sides from stone and adobe. These dwellings had a smoke hole at the top and were entered through a short, covered passage that faced east to greet the rising sun. An extended family occupied each hogan.

Originally the Navajo diet was that of nomadic hunter-gatherers who pursued deer and smaller game, gathered wild plant foods, and carried out raids on farming peoples. As the Navajo evolved under the influence of first the Pueblo Indians and then the Spanish, they came also to be shepherds and farmers. Mutton and goat became staple foods, as did corn, beans, squash, and some fruits from orchards.

Traditional Navajo religion included a large body of mythology relating to nature, with gods who were believed to intervene in human affairs. The Navajo frequently invoked these gods, making offerings to them; in ceremonial dances the gods were represented by painted and masked men. Navajo belief-systems also included ghosts—supposed spirits of dead ancestors, sometimes malevolent—and witches, people who practiced magic for personal gain or to harm others.

Another Navajo ritual, typically a healing ritual, was that of sand painting, the trickling of sand colored with minerals onto neutral-colored sand. Under the guidance of a shaman, a sand painter would create a mosaic on the floor of a lodge at dawn. The painter would use the five Navajo sacred colors—white, black, blue, red, and yellow—to depict legendary beings and natural phenomena. At the end of the ceremony the work, a kind of temporary altar, would be destroyed. By tradition, no sand painting would be kept after sunset.

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CONTEMPORARY LIFE

In the 2000 U.S. census about 269,000 people identified themselves as Navajo only; an additional 29,000 people reported being part Navajo, making the tribe the second largest in the United States. The Navajo population continues to grow. Their reservation lands, which lie mostly in Arizona but also in New Mexico and Utah, total more than 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres), making the Navajo reservation the largest in the United States. Although modern housing is available on the reservation, many Navajo still build and live in traditional hogans.

The modern Navajo economy is partly based on the sustenance provided by livestock and employment in various jobs, a number of them related to tourism. The Navajo also make pottery and baskets and are well known for their silver jewelry and wool blankets. By the mid-20th century, oil production and the discovery of rich mineral deposits, including uranium, on reservation lands had greatly enhanced their economy. Today the Navajo have one of the highest tribal incomes in the United States, earning income from oil and gas leases as well as from mineral and forest resources. However, exploitation of natural resources has also caused some hardship by displacing people from their homes and adding to the pollution of tribal lands.