Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 6 CH A PT ERS SOUTHWESTERN ARRIVAL 9 BEING NAVAJO THE GIFT OF SPIDER WOMAN 11 BEING NAVAJO FEAR OF DEATH 13 NAVAJO LIFE 17 BEING NAVAJO WHAT’S IN A NAME 19 BEING NAVAJO BECOMING A SINGER 25 CONTACT AND CONFLICT 27 BEING NAVAJO KIDNAPPED FOR SCHOOL 29 BEING NAVAJO FURS AND EVENING GOWNS 31 RETURN TO DINETAH 35 BEING NAVAJO TALKING IN CODE 37 BEING NAVAJO A NUCLEAR DISASTER 43 T R A DI T ION A L STORY THE HERO TWINS 44 R ESOU RCES ENDNOTES 46 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 47 READ MORE 47 WEBSITES 47 INDEX 48 A Navajo boy on page 3 rock art left behind in southeastern Utah by Navajo Puebloan and other tribes pictured here
N A V A JO c PEOPLES of NORTH AMERICA c Introduction M ore than 500 years ago the Navajo established their homeland on the vast expanses of the Colorado PLATEAU in southwestern North America The red brown sands stretched hundreds of miles in every direction dotted by spots of green mostly sagebrush and desert grasses Towering MESAS and rock formations sculpted by the wind rose over the land scape In some places the high land of the plateau plunged into deep canyons surrounded by steep walls of red rock Yucca piñon and juniper grew in these canyons which were home to mountain lions rabbits and foxes On the edges of the plateau brown bears wolves and deer ranged over high mountains covered with forests of pine fir and oak The Navajo rode their horses across this land They knew where to farm where to hunt where to graze their sheep and where to disappear into the rocks to hide when necessary The Navajo called their land Dinetah land of the people and they called themselves Diné or The People In the 1600s Spanish explorers referred to the Diné as Navajo That name was likely based on a Spanish interpretation of a name given to the Diné by the local Tewa peoples It meant great planted fields A new name was not all the Spanish introduced to the Navajo They also brought horses and sheep and with these animals came a whole new way of life Although continued encounters with the Spanish and later deal ings with American settlers threatened that way of life it ultimately survived Today many Navajo continue to incorporate aspects of their traditional culture into their daily lives Smaller than mesas buttes in the Colorado Plateau still make a tow ering impression 6
Navajo
A history of the people and events that influenced the North American Indian tribe known as the Navajo, including headman Manuelito and conflicts such as the Second Battle of Fort Defiance.
