Navajo : A Southern Athabaskan Language

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”.

During the Pacific portion of World War II, increasingly frequent instances of broken codes plagued the United States Marine Corps. Because the Japanese had become adept code breakers, at one point a code based on a mathematical algorithm could not be considered secure for more than 24 hours. Desperate for an answer to the apparent problem, the Marines decided to implement a non-mathematical code; they turned to Philip Johnston's concept of using a coded Navajo language for transmissions.

Let’s start with the language portion of the Peoplehood matrix and the affects that settler colonialism has had on Navajo. In Peoplehood, it is stated that the language portion of the Peoplehood matrix is “a group-particular language, by way of its nuances, references, and grammar, gives a sacred history a meaning of its own, particularly if origin, creation, migration, and other stories are spoken rather than written” (Holm, et al. pg. 13). Especially in the late nineteenth century, Navajo children like many other indigenous children were sent to boarding schools. Settler colonialism resulted in a need to as Native Words Native Warriors puts it “eliminate traditional American Indian ways of life and replace them with mainstream American culture.”

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.

According to studies performed by Puncky Heppner, a professor at the University of Missouri, learning about other cultures positively affects communication with others. Although it is important for one to understand his or her own culture, it is equally as important for one to stay informed about other cultures. In the speech “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective,” Silko compares and contrasts the cultures of the Pueblo Indians to the cultures of those in the audience. In this reminiscently informative speech, Silkoś credibility, examples, and diction help her to introduce the way of life of the Pueblos to an audience who is not familiar with their traditions.

Likewise, “pronunciation of even one Navajo word is nearly impossible for someone not used to hearing the sounds” (Nez 91). This talent can be obtained, but is seemingly impossible to be learned later in life, as “the language was so complex it could be learned only is one began in infancy” (Nez 91). That being said, this talent was in high demand because of the very small percentage of people who could speak Navajo in the United States and the US Government could not simply take shortcuts in learning the language because they would need to grow a colony of Navajo speaking children over the span of about eighteen years. Which, was time no one had.

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).

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 Nation is the largest Native American group in America today, and is the biggest Indian reservation in the United States. Situated in the northeastern part of Arizona and in the northwestern part of New Mexico, it is comprised of nearly ten million acres, or roughly fifteen thousand square miles. In this research paper the author will discuss at least three aspects of the Navajo culture that will include the kinship that the Navajo have with each other, the social structure within Navajo society, the economic organization that sustains the culture and their beliefs and values that

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.

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 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

In the United States, an emphasize in learning the dominant language, English for example, can inevitably put other languages within the country in extinction. In reality, there are many other spoken languages in the United Sates, like those spoken by Native Americans, that are becoming endangered because of the immensity of more used languages. One may ask, what is an endangered language? According to Michael Cahill (Bonvillain), who has studied and researched many different endangered languages around the world, a language is endangered when "it is in fairly eminent danger of dying out." Cahill states two ways to quickly identify when a language is on its way to becoming endangered. One is when the