Navajo People

Daily Life

The Dine are people that pay great respect to their mother Earth. Their constant devotion to their religious beliefs and outlook on balance and healing is embedded onto their daily lives. Their rich culture of visual arts and music are well integrated with their mentality of being one with mother Earth. These principles and beliefs are well embedded into traditional Navajo daily life and culture. Everything is revolved around the foundation of their location, the Earth and their entire being.

Architecture

Navajo built structures are always of necessary functional use. They have the Hogan, which is their primary traditional home. Other structures include the summer shelter, underground home and the sweat house – all for either social function, bodily health, cooling or warming. The Hogan as described in the Navajo’s religion song “The Blessingway,” is being built by the coyote with help of the beavers for man, woman and the talking God. The Hogan resembles a pyramid with 5 triangular faces held up by structural framework logs. Earth filling is used in between the framework to create thick insulated walls for the winters. Within the Hogan, women cook, weave, talk and entertain while the men tell stories and jokes. If a death should occur in the Hogan, the body is either buried in the Hogan and the entry is sealed to warn others away, or the structure is abandoned and burned. Entry doors are always on the east face.

Clothing

Navajo clothing initially was made of deerskin for shirts and skirts, later on, men wore cotton or velvet shirts with no collars, breeches below the knee and moccasins. Women began to wear the squaw dress, made of plain dark blankets.

Diet

The main foods of the Navajo is mutton and corn. Flour is also consumed due to trading. Meats such as antelope, deer, elk, sheep and rabbits are considerable in Navajo diets. Other foods such as acorns, beans, potatoes, nuts, squash, pumpkin, berries, grapes and yucca fruit are eaten.

Education

The formal education that the Navajo children receive today is mostly within a general American curriculum. The Navajo Nation has a preparation school in New Mexico which is the only Navajo-sanctioned, college-prep school for Native Americans. In addition to the general American curriculum, there are topics taught to invoke youth appreciation for the Navajo language, culture and history. The Navajo also have a sanctioned two-year community college which its main campus is in Tsaile, Apache County, with seven other campuses on the reservation. Within the community college includes Dine (Navajo People) Studies, which elevates student’s learning through Nitsáhákees (thinking), Nahat'á (planning), Iiná (living), and Siihasin (assurance) in study of the Diné language, history, and culture in preparation for further studies and employment in a multi-cultural and technological world.

Beliefs

The traditional Navajo way contains no concept for religion, rather as a realm of activity separate from daily life. Navajo religion has been described as “life itself, the land, and well-being.” All living things - people, plants, animals, mountains, and the Earth itself - are relatives. Each being is infused with its own spirit, or “inner form,” which gives it life and purpose within an orderly and interconnected universe. The interrelatedness of all creation is recognized through daily prayer offerings and an elaborate system of ceremonies. The purpose of Navajo life is to maintain balance between the individual and the universe and to live in harmony with nature and the creator. In order to achieve this goal, Navajos must perform their religious practices on the specific, time honored areas in which they inhabit.

Houses & Traditional Structures

A hogan (pronounced /ˈhoʊɡɑːn/ or /ˈhoʊɡən/, from Navajo hooghan [hoːɣan]) is the primary traditional home of the Navajo people. Other traditional structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house. It is usually round and cone shaped, but now they make them square, with the door facing east to welcome the rising sun for good wealth and fortune.

The hogan is considered sacred to those who practice the Navajo religion. The religious song "The Blessingway" describes the first hogan as being built by Coyote with help from beavers to be a house for First Man, First Woman, and Talking God^[1]. The Beaver People gave Coyote logs and instructions on how to build the first hogan, now known as a "forked stick" or "male" (áłchʼįʼ adeezʼá) hogan^[1]; which resembles a pyramid with five triangular faces^[1]. Earth may fill the spaces between the framework logs, hiding the five faceted shape and creating thick, winter-protective walls. The "forked stick" or "male" Hogan contains a vestibule in the front and was used only for sacred or private ceremonies^[1].

Navajo hogan

The "circular" or "female" Hogan (tsé bee hooghan), the family home for the Diné people, is much larger and does not contain a vestibule. In it, the children play, the women cook, weave, talk, and entertain and men tell jokes and stories. Navajos made their hogans in this fashion until the 1900s, when they started to make them in hexagonal and octagonal shapes. The change in shape may have been due to the arrival of the railroad. A supply of wooden cross-ties, which could be laid horizontally to form walls of a larger, taller home, allowed the retention of the "female" hogan shape but with more interior room. The doorways of the hogans always face east^[2].

Many cultural taboos are associated with the hogan and its use. Should a death occur in the structure, the body is either buried in the hogan with the entry sealed to warn others away, or the deceased is extracted through a hole knocked in the north side of the structure and it is abandoned and often burned. A hogan may also become taboo for further use if lightning strikes near the structure or a bear rubs against it. Wood from such structures is never reused for any other purpose by a Navajo^[2].

Navajo hogan - inside

Today, while some older hogans are still used as dwellings and others are maintained for ceremonial purposes, new hogans are rarely intended as family dwellings.

Clothing

Navajo clothing for both men and women initially was deerskin for shirts and skirts. The men later wore cotton or velvet shirts with no collars, breeches below the knee, and moccasins. Women gradually wore the "squaw dress," made of plain dark blankets

Dress

Primitively the men dressed in deerskin shirts, hip-leggings, moccasins, and native blankets. These were superseded by what has been the more universal costume during the present generation: close-fitting cotton or velvet shirt, without collar, cut rather low about the neck and left open under the arms; breeches fashioned from any pleasing, but usually very thin, material, and extending below the knees, being left open at the outer sides from the bottom to a little above the knees; deerskin moccasins with rawhide soles, which come to a little above the ankles, and brown deerskin leggings from moccasin-top to knee, held in place at the knee by a woven garter wound several times around the leg and the end tucked in.

The hair is held back from the eyes by a head-band tied in a knot at the back. In early times the women wore deerskin waist, skirt, moccasins, and blanket, but these gradually gave place to the so-called "squaw-dress," woven on the blanket loom, and consisting of two small blankets laced together at the sides, leaving arm-holes, and without being closed at top or bottom. The top then was laced together, leaving an opening for the head, like a poncho. This blanket-dress was of plain dark colors.



Diet

Find out what are some traditional Navajo foods still eaten today? What are some traditional Navajo foods from the past, but not commonly eaten today? What are the various foods prepared from a sheep? What are foods made with corn?

The principal food is mutton, boiled, and corn prepared in many ways. Considerable flour obtained from traders is consumed; this is leavened slightly and made into small cakes, which are cooked over the embers like Mexican tortillas.

The four days preceding the night of the ceremony are days of abstinence; only such foods as mush and bread made from corn-meal may be eaten, nor may they contain any salt. To indulge in viands of a richer nature would be to invite laziness and an ugly form at a comparatively early age. The girl must also refrain from scratching her head or body, for marks made by her nails during this period would surely become ill-looking scars. All the women folk in the hogán begin grinding corn on the first day and continue at irregular intervals until the night of the third, when the meal is mixed into batter for a large corn-cake, which the mother bakes in a sort of bean-hole outside the hogán.

Foods (Primitive)
English Apache Jicarilla Navaho
acorns chĭd-jí̆l na-tó-ka-tsĕ ché̆-chĭl bi-ná
antelope já-gĕ ta-gá-tĕ jú̆-dĭ
beans (native) bé̆s-tsoz ná-o-hlĕ-tsos-tĕt nú̆-o-hlĭ
cedar berries dĭl-tú-hla du-tlí̆sh-ĭ kal-tú-stĕ-ih dit-zé̆
corn na-tán na-tán na-tán
deer bin bi^{n) bin
elk bin nal-dé̆ tzĕs tzĕ
grapes (wild) dŭh-tsá tŭt-zé̆ tŭt-zé̆
juniper berries dĭl-tú-hla chĭl-há-zhĕ
mescal (agave) ná-ta ná-ta ná-ta
mountain sheep dĕ-bé̆-chụ zi-dĕ-bé̆ tsĕ-tú̆-dĕ-bĕ
piñon nuts o-bé̆ nĕs-chí nĕs-chí
potatoes (wild) ĭlh-tsú si-tsí̆n-nĭ pi-ji-né̆ ná-ma-si
prairie-dogs ăn klun klun
pumpkins bĕlh-kún na-yí-zĕ na-yĭ-zĭ-chí
rabbits (jack) gah-chú gah-tsó gah-tsó
rabbits (cottontail) gah-chi-lé̆ gah-chĭ-shé̆ gah
rats (wood) klosh-chú klé̆-tso klĕ-é̆-tso
squash gó-chi bĕlh-kún na-yí-zĕ na-yí̆-zĭ
yucca fruit gu-skú̆n kash-kán kŭsh-kán

Daily Life



The Dine are people that pay great respect to their mother Earth. Their constant devotion to their religious beliefs and outlook on balance and healing is embedded onto their daily lives. Their rich culture of visual arts and music are well integrated with their mentality of being one with mother Earth.

Navajo Culture - The Navajo are people very geared toward family life and events that surround their lifestyle. Many games and traditions have emerged from their love of the land and their attachment to it. Long winter nights and the seclusion of the reservation has brought about most of the customs and activities used by the People to entertain and amuse themselves.

Ceremonies
The Navaho life is particularly rich in ceremony and ritual, second only to some of the Pueblo groups. Note is made of nine of their great nine-day ceremonies for the treatment of ills, mental and physical. There are also many less important ceremonies occupying four days, two days, and one day in their performance. In these ceremonies many dry-paintings, or "sand altars," are made, depicting the characters and incidents of myths. Almost every act of their life—the building of the hogán, the planting of crops, etc.—is ceremonial in nature, each being attended with songs and prayers.
The Navaho life is particularly rich in ceremony and ritual, second only to some of the Pueblo groups. Note is made of nine of their great nine-day ceremonies for the treatment of ills, mental and physical. There are also many less important ceremonies occupying four days, two days, and one day in their performance. In these ceremonies many dry-paintings, or "sand altars," are made, depicting the characters and incidents of myths. Almost every act of their life—the building of the hogán, the planting of crops, etc.—is ceremonial in nature, each being attended with songs and prayers.

Education
The formal education that the Dine receive today is mostly within the grasp of common American educational systems. Although Dine do have a Navajo Preparatory School in New Mexico which is the only Navajo-sanctioned, college-preparatory school for Native Americans. Its goals are to offer students a challenging, innovative curriculum in science, math, computers, and other traditional academic subjects, as well as help the youth gain a deep appreciation of the Navajo Language, culture, and history.^[3]

Located in Farmington, New Mexico, a few miles outside the Navajo reservation, Navajo Preparatory School's mission is: "To educate talented and motivated college-bound Navajo and other Native American youth who have the potential to succeed in higher education and become leaders in their respective communities."

They also have a Dine College, a two-year community college which has its main campus in Tsaile in Apache County, as well as seven other campuses on the reservation. Current enrollment is 1,830 students, of which 210 are degree-seeking transfer students for four-year institutions. The college includes the Center for Diné Studies, whose goal is to apply Navajo Sa'ah Naagháí Bik'eh Hózhóón principles to advance quality student learning through Nitsáhákees (thinking), Nahat'á (planning), Iiná (living), and Siihasin (assurance) in study of the Diné language, history, and culture in preparation for further studies and employment in a multi-cultural and technological world.

Religion

The traditional Navajo way contains no concept for religion as a sphere of activity separate from daily life. Navajo religion has been described as 'life itself, the land, and well-being.' All living things - people, plants, animals, mountains, and the Earth itself - are relatives. Each being is infused with its own spirit, or 'inner form', which gives it life and purpose within an orderly and interconnected universe. The interrelatedness of all creation is recognised through daily prayer offerings and an elaborate system of ceremonies. The purpose of Navajo life is to maintain balance between the individual and the universe and to live in harmony with nature and the Creator. In order to achieve this goal, Navajos must perform their religious practices on the specific, time honoured areas which they inhabit.













Notes & References


Houses, Clothing, Diet, Daily Life, Education, Religion





Children of fathers God
One with Nature

Taboo with Death
Navajo aren't suppose to bother the dead
get rid of their bothering, get rid of their house, don't have photos of them

We were free people, things are changing
Hunger, poverty, given alcohol
Gas, paint sniffing, vapor abuse, all the cans have holes, mouthwash drink, hairspray, gas, antifreeze

All these people are intelligent, caring, try hard.

Why do they have a destructive behavior?
The 2' law, no water

Navajo People:
300,000 Strong
Alot of medicine people
Alot of the ways
Dineh
Largest in the US
14 Million Acre of reservation land
Operates in Window Rock, Arizona
Seek of balance between Culture and Commerce, in a way of preserving lifestyle

They would like to be independent from the US Government

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ustcINCDffA
Navajo Culture and Life

4 Cycles, 4 Elements, 4 Seasons
Summer Fire
Spring - Earth
Winter - Water
Fall - Air

4 Stages of Life - Childhood, Youth, Adult and Old Age
As a Person - Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual
Male and Female are not opposites
All part of one, were all in this boat together.

They count age by how many winters they have endured

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeM0l9P9oc4&NR=1


http://navajopeople.org

http://www.xpressweb.com/zionpark/index3.html
http://www.navajoprep.com/about-us.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Preparatory_School

Aborigines People

Architecture:
 Aborigines on the move usually slept in the open. But even when they camped for only one night, they would always make a rough windbreak of branches and bark. This windbreak was for protection against wind, as well as for marking the borders of one family group's camp with its own fire or fires. In cold, dry weather or in the rainy season, Aborigines would make more solid shelters. There were three basic varieties including bark that was bent in the middle to form an inverted "V", an oval or circular hut on a framework of saplings, interlocked at the top, criss-crossed with other boughs, and covered with bark, branches, grass, or reeds, some of which were waterproofed with clay or mud, or the materials were held down with stones, and third in Arnhem Land and the Cape York Peninsula, Aborigines made rectangular huts with four or more forked corner posts, supporting a framework of stripped saplings covered with bark, and a bark roof on top. During the wet season, the men  would elevate these huts above the ground and keep a fire going underneath to discourage mosquitoes. In north-eastern Arnhem Land, when sandflies and mosquitoes were bad and the Aborigines had no stilted mosquito huts nearby, they would sleep or rest under cone-shaped pandanus mats. In other areas, people used caves and rock shelters during the wet season or dug drains around their huts. The floor of a hut could be hollowed out and filled with soft grass or paperbark, and in northern areas, mats were used. A fire was always kept alight inside. Each hut usually contained a family with one or more wives, the husband, and their small children. Youths and single men would usually camp together to one side of the married men's huts.




Clothing:
Aborigines would usually go naked, except for a pubic covering (a covering for their private parts). In winter, in the Southeast and Southwest of the Continent, they wore cloaks which they made from kangaroo, wallaby, or possum fur, or huddled over their fires. In heavy rain, they would seek protection in a hut or rock shelter, or put up sheets of bark. Members of both sexes would decorate themselves with red and yellow ochres (coloured earths), white pipeclay, and charcoal, and liked wearing necklets or armbands of bunched feathers. Hunting was typically a task for men. Two or three hunters would co-operate, although some men would hunt alone. Spears and spear throwers were the main weapons, but there were also other weapons, too. Among them were boomerangs, clubs, large nets, and fish traps. Hunting dogs were especially useful for hunting down kangaroos and for sniffing out such burrowing animals as bandicoots. Large groups who took part in hunts included women and children who drove the animals toward the men, perhaps by lighting grass fires if the wind was right.



Diet
All areas where Aborigines lived contained enough animals and plants to enable them to survive, even though some areas were dry and arid. Only droughts and floods caught them unprepared. Meat was the most popular of foods, even in areas where fish was available. However, their main foods were vegetable roots, or seeds that women ground into flour for flat cakes. The Aborigines caught and ate almost every kind of animal-not only kangaroos, wallabies, and emus, but smaller creatures such as possums, carpet snakes, and goannas. They also ate shellfish, crabs, oysters, wild fowl and their eggs, as well as turtles and tortoises and their eggs. They also ate various insects, especially tree and root grubs, which were rich in fats and sugars, and some ants. Other foods included roots, fungi, tree-gums, honey-laden flowers, water lily stems and roots, some leaves, and many kinds of fruit.
Food collecting was mainly the responsibility of women. Their main tool was a hard, pointed digging stick It was especially good for digging out roots, small burrowing animals, and snakes and lizards. They collected fruit and berries, seeds, nuts, buds, leaves, shoots, bulbs, and root vegetables. The women had to treat some of these foods before they were edible. Many ordinary foods had to be pounded or crushed.

Cooking:
Some foods were always eaten raw, but some were roasted over an open fire, on live coals, or in an oven. Men usually cooked larger animals, such as kangaroos, while women attended to the smaller ones. The simplest kind of oven was used for kangaroos. It was a shallow pit filled with hot coals and sand, with the animal's leg bones left sticking out. Sometimes an animal's insides were removed and heated stones were put into the hollow part of its body. Then it was covered with more hot stones, sheets of bark, coals, and sand to seal it. Yams and bush potatoes were mostly cooked in hot coals or ashes. So were eggs, goannas, snakes, and crabs. Fish were baked in carefully made wrappings of leaves or paperbark to keep their flavour.

Providing fire:
People usually carried fire when they moved camp, instead of starting a new one each time. Hunters and women out collecting food often carried smouldering fire sticks. Every camp, however small, had a fire. If Aborigines needed to start a fire, they generally used the friction method-rubbing with a fire drill or a fire saw. Both tools involved hardwood, softwood, and tinder (dry material that caught fire easily).

Fishing.:
Pronged spears were popular for fishing. A man would stand quietly, almost waist deep, watching the water with his spear poised. In deeper water, he would work from a canoe or a raft. Aborigines used various nets, too, including dragnets and drum baskets. They trapped fish by making dams. They rarely used lines with hooks, but they had detachable harpoons, some attached to buoys (floating markers). They used harpoons to catch turtles and plant-eating sea mammals called dugongs. They also used harpoons to catch dolphins and such big fish as sawfish and shark. They harpooned crocodiles, but the really big ones were tough-skinned and hard to kill. Usually, several men joined in a hunt, driving the crocodile to the shore or river bank and then spearing it. Women and children hunted shellfish and crabs.

Daily Life

Most of Australia's traditional Indigenous people lived nomadic lifestyles. This means that they rarely settled in one place and would move from location to location in search of seasonal food, water and shelter. As they were constantly on the move, most Indigenous people did not concern themselves with possessions. There were some groups that stuck to specific areas and did not move around as much.
Indigenous people deeply understood the land that they lived on. Australia was a very harsh environment, yet they managed to survive whilst maintaining well-balanced diets. Indigenous people knew how to track their environment and read the different signs that signalled the seasons. Different seasons meant the availability of different foods and the need for different types of shelter and clothing.

Education
An Aborigines' education would be through the daily life and the environment in which they are surrounded by. The type of knowledge they gain from their playground, the Earth's land is also their classroom.

Religion

"Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the 'dreamtime', more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime."



http://www.gleninnes.com/cooramah/htm/food.html
http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/housing.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJm_EsRdjE&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamtime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_mythology
http://www.skwirk.com.au/p-c_s-17_u-455_t-1227_c-4695/SA/6/Daily-life/Traditional-Life/Aboriginal-People-and-Torres-Strait-Islanders/SOSE/





NOTES


The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia

The Aboriginals were nomadic, so they were more interested in portable architecture

ever since white settlers, indigeonous have been marginized. 20 years less aging than white australians

child abuse, suffering, alcoholism

alcohol abuse spreads widespread violence

What happened to the aboriginals of Australia (video)
1922-2000 Banjo Clarke
destroying their culture, confusing them
shot around the area
all native food was being destroyed
skins being taken, clothing
not allowed to go on land that was taken by the whie people
killed and starved
mass skeletons today were all Aboriginal bones, massacrews
aboriginals never had mass burials
aboriginals would move away from when someone they knew in their tribe died, spirit roam
they're free people, wanderers, then brought to a jail/confinement
disease and died
we got that trouble still but in a different way
we're descedents of the people being slaughtered, but in a different way, political things alot of us old fellas we dont know anything about political things, government talk better conditions for aboriginals, it never seems to change for us older ppl,. might be better for younger bit education, but for old people we dont know whast their talkin bout half fthe time, political meetings, we just lke being left alone, being in the bush, living our own life, peacefully - till the day we die
we was all happy kids, i never wernt ot the school
the school was where the place i hunt, food
we had plenty of food
bush food
sharing with someone else by their on the bush, they'd share it with them.

Ancient Lives - Aborigines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJm_EsRdjE&feature=related)
Aborigines (from the beginning)
Aboriginals lived o here prehistoric times
Numerous languages
2% remain 250,000
Northback west of the country (most there)
50,000 years ago, land bridge from Southeast Asia
FOOD:
Aborigines find stingless bee, they attach a thread to it and follow it back to their hive to enjoy their honey
after hunting emu for meat, to make more hunting spears
coastal waters, stingrays, cooked in their shells, turtles are steam cooked in their shells
special knowledge, water pythons
ways to find hidden water
Moth catepillars found in roots
honey pot ants, dessert

According to Aboriginal law in the beigning there waqs nothing
there was song, world was sung into being
during this dreamtime, creatures roamed the earth and shaped it
pyrinthian lizard layed its eggs and became boulders
the snakes slithered and it became a river
vibrant, symbolic art keeps it alive today
songs by elders, navigation apaprent wilderness, landscape full of meaning
elders responsible teaching and spreading aboriginal law
some converted into christiianity
revive ancient beliefs