An Introduction Of Navajo Constellations

Diné or Navajo Nation borders Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. There are four mountains that act as landmarks are Tsisnaasjini' (Mount Blanca), Tsoodzil (Mount Taylor), Doko'oosliid (San Francisco Peaks), Dibé Nitsaa (Mount Hesperus). Navajo Nation is the largest Native American Reservation in the United States, occupying 17 million acres.

Navajo culture distinctively took hold in the four corners area of the Colorado Plateau around 100 A.D., although they are believed to have been around for centuries before then. Disliking the term “Navajo Indians”, they refer to themselves as the “Diné” which means “The People” or “Children of the Holy People”.

The Native Americans believed that in the story “Coyote Places The Stars”, a coyote wonders why his wolf brothers look up at the sky every night. Well when the wolves finally tell the coyote that there are animals up in the sky. The coyote shot arrows up into the sky to create a ladder to be able to climb to the stars and visit the animals above. As they climbed to the stars they found two bears roaming the skies. The coyote decided to leave the wolves with the bears and as he climbed down the arrows he took one out at a time so the wolves couldn’t leave. As the coyote looks up at the night sky, he is pleased on how the arrangement of the stars look so he begins to arrange other stars as well, pleased with work he told Meadowlark to tell people who looks at the stars that it was the coyote who has placed the stars, now Meadowlark tells everyone about coyote and the stars ("Native American Legends").

Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them

The power in The Navajo Creation Story belongs to the four Holy People who were called mysterious beings. They appeared four times over a four day period (Franklin A: 28). These beings wanted to create more people, a community, which led to the creation of the First Man and First Woman. The First Man and First Woman became leaders as they learned “how to live a good life” (Franklin A: 29). In order for their family to live a good life the family had to grow, so after four days there were children. At the conclusion of the story, the Twins became leaders who saved the people from Monsters.

The Navajo Indian is the largest tribe in North America, how did their culture develop over time and where are they today in regards to modern times?

Every culture has their own way of life, their own religious beliefs, their own marriage beliefs, their own values and feelings on life and the options it has to offer. Each culture has their own way to run things within their own government, and own way to keep their economy up to their standards. Also each culture and society have their own primary mode of subsistence that makes them unique. Among the Navajo culture their primary mode of subsistence are pastoralists.   Pastoralists have an impact on different aspects with in the culture.   The aspects that I will be discussing will be the Navajo’s beliefs and values, economic organization, gender relations and sickness and healing.

The Navajo Indians used to live in northwestern Canada and Alaska. 1,000 years ago the Navajo Indians traveled south, because there was more qualities they had seeked there. When the Navajo Indians traveled south there was a lot of oil in the 1940’s. Today the Navajo Indians are located in the Four Corners.

American culture is made up of many different people, and many of those people come from Indian tribes. The United States Governments Federal Register lists 566 tribes recognized as of August 2012. One of those tribes is the Navajo which can be found primarily in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Navajo culture is one that many people associate with by what is portrayed in movies. People view the culture as land raiding individuals that pillaged and wreaked havoc with anyone and anything they came in contact with.

The Navajo believe there are two classes of beings, The Holy people and the Earth people. The Earth people of the Navajo must do everything they can to maintain the peace and harmony of Mother Earth since they are an integral part of the universe. According to Discover Navajo, “it is believed that centuries ago the Holy People taught the Navajo how to live the right way and to conduct their many acts of everyday life“ (Navajo culture, 2008). The Navajo people were taught to live one with animals, insects, man, and plants. Mt. Blanca to the east, Mt. Taylor to the south, San Francisco Peak to the west and Mr. Hesperus to the North near Durango, Colorado, were put in place by the holy people in the four different directions. Jet Black, Turquoise, White Shell, and Yellow Abalone represent the four directions. The Navajo culture uses the number four to symbolize many other different things. For example, there are four seasons and four distinct directions.

The world view of the Navajo who had lived for many centuries on the high Colorado Plateau was one of living in balance with all of nature, as the stewards of their vast homeland which covered parts of four modern states. They had no concept of religion as being something separate from living day to day and prayed to many spirits. It was also a matriarchal society and had no single powerful leader as their pastoral lifestyle living in scattered independent family groups require no such entity. This brought them repeatedly into conflict with Spanish, Mexicans and increasingly by the mid-nineteenth century, Americans as these practices were contrary to their male dominated religiously monolithic societal values. The long standing history

The motifs found in the creation myths are undoubtedly different from those found in any other type of myth. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of the creation myths is much greater than a primitive attempt to explain the mysteries of creation. Behind each creation myth is a vast variety of symbolism along with a number of motives which are often shared between cultures, despite vast geographical differences. My intention here is not only to discuss the purpose of the creation myths, but also to compare and contrast common themes which can be found in three selected works. These being, an Eskimo creation myth, the Ongwe creation myth and the Navajo creation myth.

Shaman is a word that described the mystic healers of Siberia. They are also one of the names that French trappers named the Native American "doctors", along with medicine men and priests (Flaherty 15). Shamans are usually males, but sometimes they are postmenopausal females. The Native

Talcott (2010) notes that winter finds the Big Dipper ascending the northeastern sky, with the three stars of its handle aiming toward the horizon and the four stars of its bowl standing highest. The entire sky pivots around a point near Polaris, a 2nd-magnitude star establish by spreading a line from the highest pair of stars in the bowl across the sky to the left of the Dipper (Talcott). Talcott contends that the Big Dipper swings high overhead during the spring. The richness of the summer sky is exemplified by the splendor of the Milky Way (Talcott). The author puts forward that the Big Dipper, which now lies in the northwest with its handle still directing toward Arcturus. High overhead, and the first star to appear after sunset, is Vega in Lyra the Harp (Talcott). The Big Dipper swings low during the autumn season, and for parts of the southern United States it actually sets (Talcott). Scientists believe that in the next few decades we may have other astronomies and new ways of seeing things.

In everyday usage, a constellation is a traditional or recognizable group of stars in the night sky, or the region of the sky containing them. In technical usage these meanings have been separated, with groupings of stars being called asterisms, and the word constellation being reserved for a specific area of the celestial sphere with boundaries