Myth Of The Navajo Nation

The first man or Navajo were created from the flesh of what would seem to be gods, but perhaps is the natural world itself. There are repetitive occurrences of natural disasters such as drought or floods, even war over resources. Eventually it the Navajo people were scattered about the four mountains and doing good well agriculturally. While the world and it its inhabitants in the legend are confusing with strange names, it provides many animals and their association with the different peoples. As an example, Stephens states that the blue and yellow foxes belong to the pueblo people and coyote and badger to the Navajo and east is coyote, west is yellow fox, south blue fox, north badger (1930, pp. 88-104).

Origin myths are traditional stories pass down from generation to generation. The Earth’s on Turtle’s Back, When Grizzlies Walk Upright, and from The Navajo Origin Legend all revealed different customs, attitude, and beliefs. These aspects showed the lifestyles and culture of each tribe and how they all came to be. Each myths are far original and different, yet at the same time similar. They focused on natural aspects of how the world came to be. In the story of The Earth on Turtles Back, the Onondagas believed in the world came from a turtle’s back, this showed their beliefs in the animals are the original owners of earth and respects for the animals. Similarly, the Modoc’s also have great deference to animals and especially to grizzlies.

The Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the nation with a little over 300,000 members on the largest reservation. The Navajo nation today has dealt with the consequences of mining uranium, limited housing development on their land, and contaminated water resources.

In warm climates men were mostly naked, but the women wore simple knee-length skirts and blouses. In the colder climates they would wear warm trousers and hooded anoraks. They would mostly wear animal skin from the animals they hunted or raised. The Navajo Indians would also wear paintings on their body, or permanent makings of a tattoo. The art on ones body would signify a persons age, social or material status, or for men, their level of skill as a warrior. The Navajo Indians would also wear many jewelry pieces. The Navajo Indians did not use silver jewelry until around 1870. The increase of silver jewelry among the Navajo’s at the time reflected the adaptation of these peoples to life as herds and silversmiths on the newly established reservations.

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.

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.

There is great respect through the Navajo Culture with regards to their kinship system. They are very traditional towards they religion and

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.

Chester is confused when it comes to religion. After being taught his whole life about Navajo beliefs he is now being introduced to Christianity. This is very confusing for him because as is his begin presented with all this new information, for example the birth of jesus, the trinity, saints, and sacraments. While learning this he beings to question if a navajo belongs at a “white man’s church”. He questions this because of the differences between the two religions; christianity as chester says stands in awe over the creation of the world by god, whereas the navajo focuses on forming a relationship with nature. Because of this when the children are forced to choose between the two religions, they could not. (Nez & Avila, 2011).

There are many familiar archetypes found in the Creation stories of the Native American Indians. The Iroquois and Navajo Creation Stories from The Norton Anthology American Literature Vol. A, contains several archetypes similar to those of the Judeo-Christian Bible. The story of the Iroquois contains similarities such as a virgin mother, characters of good and evil, different steps to creation, Heaven and Hell. Some concepts follow through in the Navajo story, but it also mentions the importance of marriage, twelve tribes, interbred peoples, floods, and a rainbow.

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 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.

Throughout history, and all over the world, mythology has been developed as a way of explaining the unknown and coping with one’s existence. Why does the sun shine? Well, seemingly, to generations past, something is controlling the universe, so there must be a god in charge of the sun and many other natural phenomenon. During the creation of Native American myths, “there was much in the way of free-range food, but hunting wasn't as easy as getting up in the morning, taking a stroll and shooting a few passing bison with your bow” (Godchecker). Times were tough, “even Plains societies who lived off the prolific buffalo fell under the threat of starvation at times” (Godchecker). Finally, “when herds were found, the people were grateful and

There is an enormous amount of symbolism in the Navajo Creation Story. One important symbol is the number 4. The table below lists several aspects of the story that are related to the number 4.

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.