Like other Native American nations, the Navajo (also spelled Navaho) suffered in their contact with outside cultures. However, the people have made the most of their large reservation, located in the southwestern United States. Their name for themselves is Diné.
The Navajo originally lived in the area that is now western and central Canada. They made their living hunting for game animals and gathering plants to eat. Between AD 900 and 1200, the Navajo and the Apache migrated southward, to their present lands. The Navajo took up farming, which they probably learned from the Pueblo people who lived not far away.
Culture and society
Arts and crafts
The Navajo probably learned weaving from Pueblo peoples. Navajo women use wool to weave beautifully patterned blankets and rugs. The Navajo are also known around the world as silversmiths. Men fashion silver into jewelry that often includes turquoise stones. Painted pottery is another Navajo craft.
Language
The Navajo language is related to Apache, but it is known by very few people outside the group. For this reason, the language was the basis of a secret code used by the United States during World War II. The “Navajo code talkers,” who used their language to relay secret messages, were honored by the U.S. government after the war.
Religion
When the Navajo came to the Southwest, they began a long association with the Pueblo. The Navajo incorporated many Pueblo elements into their own religion.
Navajo ceremonies often have the goal of keeping people safe and protecting their herds and crops. Some ceremonies can be performed only by specialists such as singers or healers. To cure physical and mental illnesses, healers often use colored sand and crushed rocks to draw traditional shapes and symbols. A sand painting is destroyed once the ceremony is over.
Housing
The Navajo traditionally lived in permanent houses called hogans. These six- or eight-sided dwellings were made from wood covered with earth. Hogans were cool in hot weather and warm in cold weather. Navajo dwellings were not clustered in villages but scattered over a wide area, close to their herds of livestock.
History
The Navajo had been living in the Southwest for hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans in the region. The first non-Indians to come in contact with the Navajo were Spaniards. They arrived in Pueblo territory in the late 16th century. They brought sheep and cattle that the Navajo learned to herd. For many years, the Navajo and Spanish raided each other's settlements. The Navajo continued to raid settlements after 1848, when their homeland became part of the United States.
To end the raids, the U.S. government went to war against the Navajo in 1863. Troops led by Colonel Kit Carson destroyed the Navajo villages and fields and killed many members of the tribe. In 1864, 8,000 Navajo surrendered and were forced to make the so-called Long Walk of more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) to Bosque Redondo, a barren area in today's eastern New Mexico. An additional 4,000 people held out for two years more under the leadership of the great chief Manuelito. Hardship and disease on the Long Walk and at Bosque Redondo killed thousands of Navajo.
A treaty signed in 1868 set up a new reservation in the Navajo homeland. In the following years, the Navajo were able to expand the reservation's borders. Today, the Navajo have the largest reservation in the United States, covering more than 24,000 square miles (62,000 square kilometers). It occupies parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and surrounds the reservation of the Hopi. The Navajo and Hopi have come into conflict over land use.
The Navajo Nation flourished and eventually became the second largest Native American group in the United States after the Cherokee. The Navajo had a population of 269,000 in 2000. Many live on the reservation, where their way of life combines American customs with Navajo traditions.