The Navajo People Were Non Existent At A Point?

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.

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”.

According to Source 2 it states, “Sandals woven from yucca fiber were typically footwear of the Mesa Verde people. Yucca fibers were boiled or soaked and then pounded to expose the inner fibers. These fibers were also used to produce rope, snares, mats, baskets, belts, and much more.” This shows how they used Yucca fibers not only for footwear but for other things such as producing rope, snares, mats, baskets, and belts. According to Source 2 it also states, "The Ancestral Puebloans were also artists and traders-trading with a network of tribes to bring shells such as these from the Gulf of California to to wear as ornamental jewelry.” This shows that they had a skill for jewelry and were able to use it for

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 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.

Guatemala is home to a centuries-old weaving tradition through which indigenous women assert a sense of “belongingness” to family and community. The women and their families are descendants of the ancient Maya Indians, and the tools of their trade are cotton yarn, the backstrap loom, and time-proven patterns and techniques. Each village and region is identifiable for its own weaving design and colors. Techniques and designs are passed from mother to daughter and traditional clothes are still preferred by most. Some believe that the different patterns existed before the Spaniards arrived. Others believe they were brought from Europe. It is known that the conquistadors used the clothing to label people and control the populations. The traditional technique was to wrap the threads on a warping board, and then mount them on back-strap loom where a panel was woven. Panels were decorated with brocade designs depending on the textile tradition of the weaver’s community as well as her personal taste and skills. Finally, the woven panels were sewn together to make a garment (Guatemalan Culture).

Native American art is a profoundly expressive culture that has been a way of life for so many Native Americans. Native American art history has advanced over thousands of years and is composed of several idiosyncratic styles from the differentiating cultures of diverse Indian tribes. From Navajo to Hopi, each tribe has a particular history, which consists of many types of Native American arts including beadwork, jewelry, weaving, pottery, carvings, kachinas, masks, totem poles, and more. To truly understand Native American art, we will explore Native American art history, its subjects, and if Native American art has a spiritual connection to it.

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.

Ojibway Indian men usually wore breechcloths and leggings. The women wore dresses and kept their hair in neat braids. Their shoes were called moccasins. They were made out of deer or moose hide. Customarily, they wore leather headbands with feathers in the back. The Ojibway Indians made pictures, belts, purses, and other objects out of beads. They loved to use wampum beads in their artwork. Wampum beads are purple and white beads made from shells. The Ojibway Indians make beadart by sewing the beads onto leather so they can be placed individually or sewn into strips. They make the strips by stitching the beads into a string. This is usually done by hand or sometimes with a bowloom. Beadart takes years to master and is very time consuming for the Ojibway Indians. The Ojibway also made dream catchers out of sticks and feathers. They believed that the dream catchers would protect them from bad dreams.

The Sioux made clothes from animals in their homelands. The men wore breechcloths and thigh length leggings. The leggings often had fringes or porcupine quills on the outside seams. Their shirts were made from a whole animal hide. The hide was sewn under the arms to make loose sleeves. The bottom of the shirt and sleeves had fringes. The shirts were decorated with porcupine quills, beads, hair locks, or animal tails. Women wore deerskin dresses and skirts. The dresses were sewn from 2 or 3 animal skins. The hem and sleeves had fringes. Some dress tops had quill work, beads, elk teeth, or seashell decorations. Men and women wore moccasins. Sometimes they made them with fur still attached. When it was winter, the moccasins could be turned with the

Throughout history, dolls have been given to children to play with or to spark their young imaginations. However, in some cultures dolls have been handed down to children to serve as tools of education and teach them about their heritage in a more entertaining and creative way. Native Americans across North America have used dolls to teach their young about their ancestors and the ancestral ways for centuries with these dolls called Katchinas. They originated from the Hopi Indian tribes. Since then they have created over two hundred dolls. The tribe was first discovered during the 1600’s living in the North West of Arizona. They have continued to live there for thousands of years now. Hopi Indians have sub tribes that consisted of 12 different villages across Arizona. They also had three different sections called mesas. In which each mesas and villages, had different Katchina dolls. Many of the artists of these dolls have spent days making unique Katchina dolls. Each village would depict their own Katchina dolls to their own understanding around some general guidelines passed down by their ancestors. These dolls were created to wordship different gods and spirits. They were traditionally given to young girls by the tribal member that participated in the Katchina dances and ceremonies. These dolls were kept as good luck charms and to keep the bad spirits away. The Katchina dolls, artwork teaches the Hopi Indian belief system and economical aspect of their native 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

Similar to quilting circles in America, knitting was a collaborative effort in the Aran Islands. The women did not put patterns to paper, so that like most wisdom teachings, the practicalities and subtleties were passed down to future generations by word-of-mouth.