Long Walk of the Diné Essay

The Navajo religion is being Navajo. Religion is something that you live every day (Young, 2001, p. 233).

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”.

A Long Walk to Water is a novel by Linda Sue Park. This novel is about Salva, an eleven-year -old Sudanese boy who grows up in South Sudan. Later in the novel, he has faced challenges one wouldn’t dream of facing, through a long period of time. He has learned, if one helps other people, those people will then help more people, which will result in more happiness in the world. He is a round character, who changes throughout the novel. Salva is a different person at the end of the book. He has gone from hearing his death journey to fighting for survival to helping transform people’s lives forever.

In order for the plan to go into action, on October 31, 1862, the establishment of the Fort Sumner was declared and war was made against the Mescalero Apache and Navajo Indian tribes (Robert 2004). As shown in figure 1, a 300 miles route was walked by children, women, and men for about two months. Once they reached the destination, an estimation of 200 people had died from starvation. A couple years later had gone by when the United States decided to introduce a treaty in1868 that allowed the Navajos to return to their homes also now called the reservations.

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.

Most Indians were taken or killed on the trail, but not all; the ones that stayed join the society to escape moving to the west. Around 100,000 Native Americans were removed, not killed. The main tribes that were removed were the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole (“Trail of Tears”). In 1838 the first group was 3,000, but there was 12,000 remained in military camps (McGill). In 1837 the first tribe to be removed was the Choctaw, follow by the Chickasaw (Blackbarn). After the Chickasaw, the Cherokee were forced in 1838 to 1839, and the Cherokee were the last tribe (McGill).

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?

Numbering roughly 250,000, the Navajo reservation covers approximately 25,000 square miles. Window Rock located in the North Eastern part of Arizona is the capital of the Navajo Nation. As one of the poorest regions in the country, isolation, culture, traditions, as well as economic status affect the Navajo communities’ wellbeing and healthcare. While the elderly Navajo population grows about three percent a year, life expectancy is “73.7 years compared to 76 years for the general population” (Mercer, 1996, p 184). Elderly Navajo members are revered due to their wisdom and life experience. Other things that negatively affect the healthcare of the Navajo are little running water or electricity, no phones, rough rugged terrain and most must drive more than one hour to a facility that provides health care. The Navajo home or hogan entrance must face east to welcome the sun for daily blessings. Made of tree bark, mud and wooden poles, the hogan is windowless. The majority of the Navajo population has no indoor plumbing. Merely 38% of Navajo people actually have electricity, heat and plumbing (McCauley, 2004, p. 47).

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.

Students will read A Long Walk to Water, analyzing the points of view of the central characters, Salva and Nya.

Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in

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.

Fort Defiance was built in eighteen-fifty-one. It was located about thirty miles southeast of Canyon de Chelly. The Navajo people, to graze sheep, had used this land. And now it had been taken over for use by the soldier?s horses. A long barrage of attacks and reprisals had begun. These battles peaked in 1860 when one thousand warriors waged an attack on Fort Defiance. The army was forced to abandon the fort, but revenge was the word that would cut across the Navajo nation. The Navajo?s crops were burned, livestock was confiscated or slaughtered, and they faced the threat of starvation.

This essay will explore the cultural values of three different cultures; Navajo, Laguna, and Euro-American culture. Two of the cultures that I will be exploring are the Native communities that I have been well exposed to since I was a child. The values that I will be discussing are gender, education, and money. Growing up on a reservation in New Mexico, I have a closer insight on the similarities and differences of those values.

They were moved in small groups of between five hundred and two thousand. Many Choctaw Indians were to die on the trip to Oklahoma. There were many factors that led the staggeringly high mortality rate. Factors such as Diseases, such as smallpox, mishaps, lack of food, shelter, weather exposure, and simply being hurried along causing exhaustion, during the relocation caused the deaths of many Indians. This horrific experience, that the Choctaw Indians underwent, was how the name the Trail of Tears came to be (Hoxie). It is estimated that, “By the end of the 1830's, the Southeast Indians had lost sixty to ninety percent of the estimated 150,000 of the original Indian population...”, before the relocation (“The Five Tribes”). The Cherokee Indians, by far, suffered and lost the most. A small group of Cherokee, thought it better to avoid being forced off their land by the military, and relocated to Oklahoma fared mostly well. However, the large remainder of the tribe, opposed leaving, and thus the Georgia militia confronted this group and practiced a scorched earth policy. That is, burning their crops, homes, and killing the Indians that resisted. It's estimated that one quarter of the Cherokee tribe died resisting relocation. The Muskogee Creek Indians, mostly, refused to leave their homeland. As a direct result, the Creek War of 1836-1837 began. Eventually, the American army captured more than fourteen thousand Creek Indians and marched them to Oklahoma