Essay On Navajo Culture

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. The life of a Navajo Indian had its ups and downs I realize that it is far more strenuous than the modern life that we live. Unlike most societies throughout history the Navajo culture is centered on the mother, grandmother and occasionally the older sisters, in other words the Navajo Indians have a matrilineal society. (O 'Neil). Men and women had different roles to fulfill within the clan, the men were political leaders, hunters and warriors. Only men were allowed to be chiefs. Women were farmers, tended to the livestock, responsible for childcare and cooking. (Lewis) Along with being in charge of the hunting, politics and fighting men were also the only one s allowed to become chief of the tribe. The Navajo also referred to as the Dine were the largest Native American tribe in the United States, numbering at approximately 150,000. The Navajo were much 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. They usually didn’t live in villages, members of an extended family often lived close by in order to work together raising crops and livestock (add encyclopedia citation.) in addition to borrowing from other cultures, they also raided neighboring peoples, gaining the enmity of Europeans and other Indians alike. Cunning and trickery were among their well known characteristics, and they were expert horse-thieves. With the Indian, as well as with civilized man, honesty may be interpreted in various ways. If one should leave his camp equipage unprotected in a tent, it would be entirely safe from all except the renegade, already recognized by his people as a thief. But if one should turn his back and later find that his horse had been run off by a Navajo in the hope of being rewarded for returning it, the tribesmen of the raider would regard him as one whose cunning should be emulated. (Carey)For a long period prior to the acquisition from Mexico of the territory now forming the northern portion of Arizona and New Mexico, which, since first known, has been occupied in part by the Navajo, the tribe had been in the habit of making raids on the New Mexican Indian pueblos who they also frequently traded with and the white settlements along the Rio Grande, chiefly for the capture of livestock, although both Indians and Mexicans also were taken and enslaved.
The Mexicans lost no opportunity to retaliate, with the result that scattered throughout their villages in the valley of the Rio Grande there were more captives of Navaho blood than there were Mexican prisoners among the Navajo tribe; but in the matter of sheep, cattle, and horses, the Navaho were far ahead in the game of thievery, and even boasted that they could easily have exterminated the Mexicans had they not needed them as herders of their stolen flocks. The Navajo themselves were commonly attacked by the Ute, Zuni, Hopi, other Indian tribes, Mexicans, and white settlers. It is misleading to think of the Dine’ as a single tribe before the arrival of the Americans and the establishment of the Navajo reservation system. While united loosely by cultural tradition they clearly were not one political body and did not act as a single unit, a battle waged by one group would not necessarily be condoned or even acknowledged by another. An agreement or decision made by one group would not
bind all Navajo. (Cite Encyclopedia) The Navajo people were very mindful of “Mother Earth” when it came to building homes and hunting, they ate a lot of mutton (sheep’s meat) and other various sized game such as rabbits, prairie dogs, deer and antelope. When they killed an animal, the whole animal was used, the meat is consumed or dried for later use and the hide or skin is used to make a variety of different objects such as footwear, belts, and clothing. (McPherson) The Dine’ lived in dwellings called hogáns, which were six sided buildings constructed out of logs and mud or sod. These buildings were not only used for living usually they also were the locations of tribal ceremonies hosted by the tribes religious leader or shaman, the hogán in which someone dies is forever abandoned, often burned. Sometimes a hogán is demolished over the dead and then the body is left to decay. Life as a native American was not easy, imagine having to hunt, grow, or even sometimes steal what you needed to survive, I honestly couldn’t imagine myself or many others that I know being able to do all that was necessary to live during this time Works Cited
Carey, Harry Benally& Harold. http://navajopeople.org/. 1994-2011. .
Lewis, Laura Redish and Orrin. Native Languages of the Americas. .
McPherson, Robert S. .
O 'Neil, Caitlin. pbs.org. .