Shiprock

Kristofic and Darren started Ganado Primary School. Kristofic was teased by being called “Bilagáana” (The white Apple) and bullied by his classmates (Kristofic, 2011, pp.8-10). As days went by, Kristofic started making new friends and did not hate Ganado so much anymore. He learned things he never knew before. He first learned, that Navajos are not Indians (Kristofic, 2011, p.13) and Navajos are called “Dine” (Kristofic, 2011, p.47). As years went by, Kristofic started to appreciate the culture, tradition, and started to learn the language. Within the first few years, Kristofic’s mother dated a Navajo man and married him. Kristofic mother had two children for him. A girl called Yanabah (Kristofic, 2011, p.99), and a boy called Glen (Kristofic, 2011, p.120). After graduating middle school in Ganado, Kristofic and his family moved to the Navajo Generating Station outside Page, Arizona (Kristofic, 2011, p.125). His mother got another job in this location to be able to have college savings for both her sons. Kristofic and Darren both attended Page High School.

This is a major reason why we should be giving them better land instead of money. The reservation land that the government has given to the Native Americans is holding them back to live their life to the fullest. The people there only live for about an average of 50 years while an average American lives for about 78 years, that’s at least 28 years taken away from them. On top of that, the Native Americans living there only make about $7,000 a year, which is barely enough to make a living. Hence, giving them better land would allow them to live for a longer period of time and have a chance to earn enough money to provide for themselves and

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.”

Native Americans have been forced out of their culture over time, forced into assimilation, lost their rights, and have lost their land due to policies and laws by the whites that can’t bear the Native American way of life. There used to be many Native American tribes all throughout North America, and now these tribes are spread across the country and are blended into the rest of the population. The native ways have changed drastically in the last two centuries due to relocation programs, Indian boarding schools, and the way to classify which tribe each person belongs to. Native Americans have endured so much pain, which results from everything they have lost over time, and they have constantly paid the price for their ethnicity.

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

W.E.B Du Bois once stated “to be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships” (qtd. in Rodgers 1). The Native American culture is often overlooked by many people in the United States today. What many people do not realize is that about twenty-five percent of Native Americans are living in poverty (Rodgers 1). A majority of the poverty among Native Americans is due to the United States breaking treaties that promised funds for their tribes. When non-Native Americans first began migrating to North America, the Indians were slowly having their land stripped away from them, and being pushed to live on small, poorly kept reservations. As well as taking

The Navajo tribe is one of the most well known Native American tribes in the world, and also quite possible the largest. The Navajo reservation covers a large portion in the state of Arizona, an is the largest known reservation, even having its own government. However, the history of the Navajo tribe is a rich and complex thing, spanning almost as far back as the settlement of the first human inhabitation of the Americas. There are not large amounts of documented history from the pre-european era of the Navajo, but extensive scientific studies and multiple archaeological finds have given us clues about the early tribe. The Navajo were originally part of a group in western Canada called the Athapaskans.

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.

In these new configured reservations the Natives were each given a certain amount of land per each family and they got a yearly income of money, and other provisions. But despite how nice it sounds, the reservations kept the Natives from living their own independent lives, and forced them to drop any religious traditions and/or ways of life: “The federal government passed laws that forced Native Americans to abandon their traditional appearance and way of life.” (2016 Victoriana Magazine). There was no way that the Natives could get back to where they were before and where they needed to be.

The Navajo had a lifestyle that is not too diverse than the American style of living today. They lived in homes, raised livestock, and the public had roles that are a bit similar to ones in our society. They lived in cone shaped houses called hogans. At first, logs and poles were used as framework, but in later years, they used stone or adobe. The doorways always faced east so that the first thing the family saw was the morning sun. They also raised livestock to increase herds instead of the usual in which the tribe would use up the supply for food. They first received goats and sheep from the Spanish, in which they used for meat, milk, and wool. They also acquired horses at about the same time. Horses gave them greater mobility during raiding and hunting activity. The roles of the people are also similar to the world

Living on the reservation you may be surrounded by your own people, but you can still live other places and have a better life. They can still ride bulls if they really want too. They would rather much prefer a real less risky job out in the business world. The indians really get tortured even though they were promise land for their people. They are cut and striped of all the modern day necessities. Just for water they have to race to a well just to get water, if some don't make it their lucked out.

The men of these towns knew that people “liked to see Indians and Indian dances; they wanted a chance to buy Indian jewelry and Navajo rugs” (Silko 116). It is sad to see that the natives were forced to perform these sacred ceremonies and sell jewelry because thats the only way that could really sustain themselves once their land was taken away. The Southwest today is very similar to the rest of the US but there is still a huge tourist interest in the reservations of the Navajos and the other natives living on the reservations. The dynamic between the natives and the intruders is what really defines the region today. the people who originally lived on these lands and worked with the lands were forced on to reservations and their culture has slowly been dying out.

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 Hopi inhabited the northeastern Arizona territory and live an agrarian lifestyle. Hopi land is known as Hopitutskwa. They have been successful in maintaining their traditional culture in spite of pressure to assimilate into the American culture. This has made their reservation sites tourist attractions. They are the most studied Indians of all native groups in North America. The Hopi follow a philosophy which states that humans and nature intertwine and cooperate. Most Hopi now live in towns near the 3 “Mesas” which are high protruding rocks located along the southern portions of the “Black Mesa”. Mesas are the elevated parts of the land where the Hopis have their towns and they are only accessible by foot. The current reservation itself only includes a portion of the Hopitutskwa.