The North American Indian Part 19

Mescaleros - Natahi?n (Mescal)

Navaho - Inltane? (Corn Planters)

Pueblos - Chiain (Have Burros)

Ute - Yota

THE NAVAHO

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Tobadzischi?ni_ - Navaho]

_Tobadzischi?ni_ - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

LANGUAGE-Athapascan.

POPULATION-About 17,000 (officially estimated at 20,600).

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 These were superseded by what has been the more universal costume during the present generation: close-fitting cotton or velvet shirt, without collar, cut rather low about the neck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. To-day it has practically disappeared as an article of Navaho costume, the typical "best" dress of the women now consisting of a velvet or other cloth skirt reaching to the ankles, a velvet shirt-like waist cut in practically the same manner as that of the men, and also left open under the arms. Many silver and sh.e.l.l ornaments are worn by both s.e.xes.

The women part their hair down the middle and tie it in a knot at the back.

DWELLINGS-Whatever its form or stability, the Navaho house is called _hogan_. In its most substantial form it is constructed by first planting four heavy crotch posts in the ground; cross logs are placed in the crotches, and smaller ones are leaned from the ground to these, the corner logs being longer, forming a circular framework, which is covered with brush and a heavy coating of earth. The entrance is invariably at the east. The building of a hogan and its first occupancy are attended with ceremony and prayer. For the great nine-day rites hogans like those used as dwellings, but larger, are built. Generally they are used for the one occasion only, but in localities where there are very few trees the same ceremonial hogan may be used for a generation or more. For summer use a brush shelter, usually supported by four corner posts and sometimes protected by a windbreak, is invariably used, supplanting a once common single slant shelter.

PRIMITIVE FOODS-See the list in the vocabulary.

ARTS AND INDUSTRIES-The Navaho are known the world over for their skill in weaving. Practically every Navaho woman is a weaver, and the blanketry produced is one of the most important handicrafts of any tribe of North American Indians. A few baskets, of a single form, are made, and for ceremonial use only, most so-called Navaho ceremonial baskets being manufactured by neighboring tribes. The Navaho are also skilful silversmiths, having learned the art of metal-working from the Spaniards.

Their first work of this character, however, was in iron, but this was superseded by the more easily worked silver. Some pottery is made, but it is rather crude in form, black in color, and without decoration.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION-The government of the Navaho is rather loose; indeed, inasmuch as they have no head-chief strictly such, it may be said that they have no _tribal_ government. Their code of ethics and morals is governed almost entirely by their religious beliefs. There is always a man who is denominated the head-chief, but his influence is seldom much greater than that of any one of the many subordinate chiefs who are the recognized heads of small groups only.

CLANS-Descent is reckoned through the mother, and a man and a woman belonging to the same clan may not marry. There are also related clans, forming phratries, within which marriage is also prohibited by tribal custom. In the Navaho creation myth it is related that four pairs of men and women were made by Yolkai Estsan at her home beyond the western ocean, whence they migrated eastward, far inland, joining others of their kind created but a short time previously. Each parent pair was given a sacred jewel wand with which to bring water from the earth if no springs were found during the journey. The first man brought water with ease, remarking, "The water is close," owing to which circ.u.mstance he came to be termed To Ahani, Water Is Close. In a similar way the other three pairs received the names of To Dichini, Bitter Water; Hashkli?shni, Mud; and Kinya ani, Houses in the Cliffs. It required four days to make the journey from the ocean to what was to be their homeland. On the first day children were born to the several pairs; they matured by nightfall and camped apart from the parents as though they were not of kin, and received in turn a family name derived from their camp surroundings, from peculiarity of dress or form, or from remarks they made. These in turn bore children on the following day, who gave birth to others on the third. Thus were produced three new generations from each parent pair. All these then became clanship groups bearing names now applied to various Navaho clans.

The four generations, including the original pairs, formed phratries, which have no names. The clans in each phratry in the order of generations are as follows:

To Ahani - Water Is Close Tzilh Klaani - Mountain Corner Tane Zani - Scattered Mounds Hone Gani - Goes Around

To Dichini - Bitter Water Tsins Akani - Under the Trees Bin Betoni - Deer Spring To Dakoshe - Salty Water

Hashkli?shni - Mud To Tsu?hni - Big Water Bitani - Folds her Arms Hluha Dine? - Reed People

Ki?nya ani - Houses in the Cliffs Be Aani - Fallen Leaves Tzilh Tad - In Front of the Mountains Ki?nya ani - (An inferior clan of the same name as the first of this group)

Cliff people already occupying the country formed three clans: Tsenijikinne?, In the Rock Houses; To Het Kli?ni, Where the Waters Come Together; and Tzilhnuhodinli, Beside the Mountain. An old woman joined the Navaho from the salt lakes to the south, heading the Ashihin clan. People from Jemez formed the Mai Deshkis, or Coyote Pa.s.s, clan; Apache from the Cibicu canon, the Deschini clan, or Red-light People, and families from Zuni the Nashtezhe?, Blackened Eyebrows, clan, and Tuh'chini, Red Heads, clan, so called from their painted faces and bodies. There are numerous other clanship groups derived from adopted peoples now recognized as being distinctly Navaho; the first sixteen clans here named are accepted in the tribe as being strictly Navaho in origin.

MARRIAGE-The girl's consent is necessary to marriage, but tribal custom demands that the intended husband compensate her parents, the usual price being fourteen horses and a silver belt. Indeed, the bringing of the horses is a part of the ceremony. When a young man desires to marry, but does not have the necessary number of horses, his friends aid him by presenting horses until he has the required number. The marriage ceremony takes place at night under the direction of a medicine-man.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Ga__n__askidi_ - Navaho]

_Ga__n__askidi_ - Navaho

_From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis_

ORIGIN-Mythical First People produced from corn, rain, pollen, and precious stones in a miraculous manner by four G.o.ds and the Winds.

PERSONS OF MIRACULOUS BIRTH-Naye?nezgani and Tobadzischi?ni are the sons of the Sun and Water respectively, and the virgin Yolkai Estsan, White-Sh.e.l.l Woman. Man-destroying monsters, symbolic of earthly evils, infested the earth until destroyed by these two miraculous personages.

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 hogan, the planting of crops, etc.-is ceremonial in nature, each being attended with songs and prayers.

BURIAL-The Navaho dead are buried by others than immediate relatives in unmarked graves. No ceremonies are held, for the dead are considered evil and are feared. The hogan in which death occurs is forever abandoned, often burned. Sometimes a hogan is demolished over the dead and then left to decay.

AFTER-WORLD-An under-world whence came the spirit people who created man and to which spirits return.

THE END OF VOLUME I

The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.

FOOTNOTES

1 The agave or maguey plant, locally called mescal, for which reason the latter term is here employed.

2 This medicine skin was owned by Hashke Ni?lnte and was considered one of the most potent belonging to any of the medicine-men. During the lifetime of Hashke Ni?lnte it was impossible for any white man even to look upon this wonderful "medicine." After reaching extreme age he was killed, presumably by his wife, from whom this valuable and sacred object was procured.

3 Possibly a legendary reminiscence of a home in the far north and the subsequent migration to the south.

4 The myth and ritual of this ceremony are given on pages 111-116.

5 Versions differ as to the number of worlds through which the progenitors of the Navaho pa.s.sed. Some give three before this one, others but one. The version adopted by the Bahozhonchi, a religious order or medicine society whose rites and ceremonies are the oldest and most widely known of any in the tribe, treats of two worlds only: the one below, from which the Digi?n, or Holy People, migrated in the form of insects, birds, and beasts, and to which the dead return; and the present, into which was born man in his present image, created of pollen, corn, white sh.e.l.l, turquoise, and rain by the Digi?n. These Digi?n were the animals which never a.s.sumed absolute material form on this earth, and the G.o.ds who perfected the creation. The creation of the world below, together with all food products, plant life, and animals known to the Navaho, is credited to First Man and First Woman, astse Hastin and astse Estsan; but the myth does not go back to that creation, nor, save for the plant and animal life and a little earth used in making mountains, does it a.s.sume the use of any part of the underworld in the making or completion of this. So far as the inhabitants now found in the image of man are concerned, they were made, and first existed, on this earth, and did not develop from a lower order.

6 The Navaho sometimes vary the a.s.signment of their directional colors by relating, like the Apache of Arizona, black to the east and white to the north.

7 These four names still survive among the Navaho, applied to as many clans.