Heart of the Navajo tribe

The Navajo society is a culture rich in tradition. They value the close knit relationship with their family and have a great appreciation for the land. They fought to preserve their way of life, resulting in high values in; kinship, lifestyle, religious beliefs, and their rites of passage.

What molds a nation or group of people? As a member of the Navajo Nation, I’ve wondered how our history has impacted our nation. This research paper is a reflection of my curiosity. Throughout this paper I will explain how The Navajo Long Walk and The 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo contributed in shaping what the Navajo Nation today. During the mid 19th century tensions with the Navajo, U.S. government, and white settlers were tense. The third wave of the Navajo Wars would ultimately lead to the U.S. government’s decision to create a campaign against the Navajo and thus impose the Navajo Long Walk (Brooks 95). General Carleton, a U.S. Army General, had Kit Carson, the well-known Indian fighter, deliver his demands to the Navajo, he said, “Say to them: Go to Bosque Redondo or we will pursue and destroy you. We will not make peace with you on any terms. You have deceived us too often and robbed and murdered our people too long to trust you at large in your own country.” (Acrey 39). Thus, in 1864, Navajo people were forcibly removed by the U.S. federal government from their traditional homelands to eastern New Mexico. U.S. Army records indicate that at least 11,468 Navajos were forced to walk three hundred to five hundred miles to the internment camp called Bosque Redondo (Spanish translation is Round Forest) or Fort Sumner (Cheek 18). For four years, Navajo people were forced to stay in Bosque Redondo where starvation, disease, and restriction of their culture was prevalent.

The Diné means “The People” and it is what the people that we know presently as the Navajo went by. The Red Nation article “Considering a Navajo Name Change: Self-Identification, Land, and Liberation” by Majerle Lister states that “‘Navajo’ is not a Diné word or concept, despite its use as our [the Diné] official name for more than a hundred and fifty years.” This is a clear example of how settler colonialism has impacted the Navajo Nation. Settler colonialism has had an impact in the Peoplehood matrix of the Navajo from language and sacred history to place/territory and ceremonial cycles, yet it has not stop efforts from the Navajo Community to mend the damage that settler colonialism has had on their culture over the years.

According to the history of the Navajo Tribe, the Holy People lived in the underworld and helped by guiding the First Man and First Woman to earth (McCoy 1988). The Holy People are said to be attracted to songs, dances, and chants during the ceremony along with the creation of Sandpainting. The Sandpainting is used in the healing process of the ceremony to draw a picture that tells a story of the Holy People. The Navajo culture have amazed so many people to how beautifully constructed the rituals are performed.

The lifestyle was fairly lax yet at the same time they knew when they needed to prepare for war or a new move. Some of the customs the Cheyenne had included the smoking of a peace pipe and the prayer made before each smoke. Another tradition was their story telling. Skilled story-telling Indians performed all stories told and these stories were about true-life situations. The Cheyenne tribe actually passed on these stories as well as their customs, religious ceremonies, and traditions orally from generation to generation. This could be the reason on why the Cheyenne were not actually discovered until the 1600s. One of the largest beliefs of the Cheyenne had to do with religion, though. They believed in two deities: the Wise One Above and a God who lived beneath the ground. Also, there were four spirits that lived at the points of the compass that they followed everywhere (Lewis). Because the culture of many Indian tribes differed greatly from the United States, there were conflicts between whites and Indians.

I picked the Chinook tribe, which is a northwestern tribe located around the columbian river, or today's Washington and Oregon. The land and climate really defined how the Chinook people lived and is why it’s defined as a folk culture. The Chinook tribe is around large forests that the tribe uses to build canoes and large houses. The Chinook tribe would build these large houses and many people could live inside, these houses were made out of red cedar a tree that was very abundant in the area. The Climate where the Chinook tribe located was very harsh but easy at times. The climate existed of very rainy seasons with very hot seasons that defined what the Chinook tribe would wear. The Chinook tribe would wear little to nothing on the hot

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, also known as the Diné, are one of the largest Native American Tribes in the world. Their culture is made up of very distinct and unique characteristics that have been passed down from generation to generation. They have been taught to adapt to their surroundings and to the land. Each moral, standard, belief and value are what make the Navajo so unique to the Native Americans. In the following, their primary mode of subsistence, kinship system, beliefs, values, and economic organizations will be briefly examined to gain a better knowledge of the Navajo culture.

The Navajo nation is the largest U.S Indian tribe. It has more than 250,000 people. They are located in Northern New Mexico, a portion of southern Utah, and part of northern Arizona. They first descended from the Apaches, who came from the Pueblos. Their native language is Athapaskan. “Navajo” came from the word navahu’u meaning “farm fields in the valley.” The Spanish chroniclers first referred to the Navajos as Apaches de Nabajo’ meaning Apaches who farm in the valley. Then the name was eventually shortened to the Navajo. Spanish settlers recognized the close connections between the Apache and Navajo peoples based on the word.

A Lost Navajo Knowing my Navajo language, and culture, is my identity as well as how I represent myself in today’s society. In Chester Nez’s story of how he was shipped off to boarding school, he told his story of the heartbreaking truth, and his experience he had to be stripped of his own native language. Still my story is the opposite, but similar to Nez’s story the roles are reversed, Navajo children do not know their language fluently as our ancestors did. Growing up not being able to speak my own native language has given me negative advantages, yet I refuse to give up learning my language to one day I will be fluent in my language as a Navajo. Over the years I have also learned it is a privilege to be Native American.

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

Anthropologically, the Pueblo people are the most studied culture in the world—besides the western cultures. There are 19 Pueblos, and they have many similarities as well as differences. Pueblos are mostly known for their oral stories, pottery, and rituals. All of the Pueblo people of New Mexico and Arizona share a common ancestry: they are descendants of the ancient Anasazi civilization. Pueblo societies revolve around five fundamental concerns: weather, illness, warfare, control of flora and fauna, and village harmony. Each Pueblo was gifted a cane of power first by the Spanish, then by Mexico, and lastly Abraham Lincoln gave canes to signify the federal recognition of Pueblos being sovereign nations. Historically, Pueblos are similar in their settlement patterns (compact, communal villages), highly centralized government, and have similar religious practices. All 19 Pueblos have the circular houses—kivas—where ceremonies and rituals take place. The Pueblo people are traditionally farmers of the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash. They also farmed cotton and tobacco. During colonization, the Spaniards introduced fruit trees, alfalfa, chili, and wheat. Wheat is particularly important to the people in the southwest because it can be grown year-round. All

The Navajos were an Indian group that lived in the four corners region of the Untied States. The Navajos were considered very good artists. Their art projects all held symbolism within them. Whether it was religious, ceremonial, or just simply to help distinguish things, the Navajo art had symbolic meanings left and right.

Kill the beast, kill the creature. Do not be noble, not today. Stab the bear through the eye and slit its throat.

The Pueblo Indians had a special building called a Kiva in their village. A Kiva is a special building usually built underground that is used for ceremonies,religious rituals and ceremonial preparations. Another thing in a Pueblo