...Rituals and Expectations The Navajo people have a belief that the spirit of their dead would come back to the living if they were not properly buried. The death rituals and expectations for the Navajo Native Americans is a culture that is very sensitive about their dead. The Native Americans needed their dead to be buried rather quickly to make sure that their dead would not come back. The Navajo Native Americans back in the day would clean the dead body and then cover it with a coverlet. They would then put the dead on a horse and head north as far as they could go. The family would find a burial place for their dead and kill the horse so that the dead would have a new horse in the next life. Burial customs require that everything is in order and that all the rituals are followed. One of the rituals is that is a person dies in their home that their home will have to be burned with the body. The surviving family would have to be there at the burning so that they will also be purified along with the deceased (Navajo Death Rituals, 2016)....
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...Navajo Culture The Navajos came into the Southwest sometime around the 16th century, they were a small group of hunting and gathering people. We know them as Navajo but they would call themselves Diné, which stood for “The People”. “The Navajo are Athapaskan speakers whose language is similar to that of the Apache” (Arizona Board of Regents). They have a broad culture and were known for the ability to survive and adapt really well, especially to local cultures. There primary mode of subsistence is Pastoralists, they utilize farming as a key mode for living. Looking ahead we will gain in depth more knowledge and understanding about the Navajo culture; what were their beliefs, kinship, social organization and more. The word Navajo comes from the phrase Tewa Navahu, meaning highly cultivated lands (Navajo Indians 2013). In the 1500s they originally started up their tribe and are considered to be one of the largest tribe of all the Native American Indians. There is two areas that are highly populated with the Navajo, New Mexico and Arizona. Navajo are very simple when it comes to their way of living which is much different than other cultures. Their homes are made of sticks, mud and tree bark, it’s much like a shelter rather than a home. These homes were known as hogans, and their doors faced the east to be sure the sun would shine in (Navajo Indians 2013). In order to get things such as meat and different forms of materials for making weapons and tools they would trade...
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...Southwestern United States: The Navajo The Navajo are very proud people, with a great deal of history behind them. Existing for thousands of years, the exact time of their arrival to the Southwestern United States is still argued among archaeologists and Navajo historians. All that can be agreed upon is that the Navajo have occupied this region since at least the early 1600s. Having been through a great many intrusions and wars, these great people have remained consistent and thriving, able to constantly provide for themselves and their families. It has been said that the Navajo originally migrated from western Canada, belonging to an American Indian tribe known as the Athabasca. Some settled in northern Arizona, and became part of different Apache tribes. Apache languages are said to sound very similar to the Navajo language (Linford, 2000). Archaeologists have found supporting evidence to suggest that the Navajo have occupied the Southwestern United States since the early 1500s. Carbon dating used in the “Dinetah”, which is the Navajo homeland, led these archaeologists to believe that the Navajo had been around for a lot longer than the original estimation. However, the earliest reports of the Navajo in central Arizona came with the Spanish incursion in the 1770s (Linford, 2000). It appears the Navajo did not spread into southern Utah until the 1850s. They had relocated to this area after fleeing from the United States Army (Linford, 2000). Once in Utah...
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...The Navajo Way Lucious Davis ANT:101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Instructor: Jessie Cohen March 10, 2012 The story of the Navajo is one that is filled with triumph, tragedy, and hope. The Navajo are a pastoral people originating in North America. The culture of the Navajo’s is a one filled with traditions that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Their culture is what defines them and it is a major factor in the way they live their lives- including their social organization, beliefs and the way they heal their sick. Background Few cultures have left their imprint on North America like the Navajo. With over 300,000 members, the Navajo are the largest federally recognized tribe in the Unites States. Originating in northwest Canada and eastern Alaska, the Navajo, along with other groups like the Apache migrated to their more commonly known territory- the southwestern United States. Accounts have dated the occupation of the southwestern United States by the Navajo to stretch as far back as 1400. Throughout history, the Navajo have expanded their territory through raiding and commerce, now are mostly confined to a small area that is called the “Four Corners”. This is the area of the southwest United States that is comprised of: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo can best be described as seminomadic- they tend to move according to the seasons. Jett (1978) stated that the actual movement patterns can vary greatly from...
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...Running Head: Nation within a Nation Amy Lamb Ashford University ANT 101 Instructor Rebekah Zinser July 29th 2013 The Navajo, also known as Dine`, are some of the first Indians who set foot in America. The primary mode of subsistence for any culture means a way of supporting life. The Navajo’s primary modes of subsistence are pastoralists. How does a pastoralist society impact beliefs and values, healing and sickness, and kinship of the Navajo culture? These are the three aspects I plan to discuss and prove that the Navajo Nation is a Nation within a Nation. The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering 27,425 square miles, occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico. (Linford, 2000) The Navajo reservation is the largest Indian tribe in North America. The Navajo’s are a pastoral and agriculture society. They use farming and herding as their primary mode of subsistence. The Navajo culture is of spiritual nature. The Dine` believes in having a spiritual relationship with their land. The Navajo’s are known as people who are in tune with the spiritual world, and they are spiritual beings. The Navajo wish to live their culture and lives without interference of the Western World government. “We do not like relief and want to make our own living and we know we can do so if we are left alone.”(Lee, 2007). According to Clah Cheschillige, in the 19th century and the...
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...The Navajo Indian Cultural Anthropology The Navajo Indians of the Southwestern United states have a distinct social organization, kinship, and a both traditional and biomedical way that they approach sickness and healing. Their social organization revolves around their community and the Earth. Kinship for the Navajo is matriarchal and they are a pastoral society. The traditional Navajo have medicine men that the tribe goes to for any sickness and healing that needs to be done. The modern Navajo has established the Indian Health Service as their standard medical facility and agency. I will go into more detail on all three areas of the tribe’s society of the Navajo people throughout this paper. The tribes of the Navajo Indians are located in Southwest region of the United States. They range from Southwestern Colorado, Northwestern New Mexico, and Northeastern Arizona. Most of the Navajo Indians live on reservations in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. The Navajo are the second largest of the Native American tribes and have a population of 7.2% of the Native Americans. They are second to Native Alaskans ((U.S. Census Bureau, 2008).. The marriage rate in the Navajo nation is forty five percent. Only seven percent have a college degree. They have the lowest income level out of all of the Native American tribes. They have a large poverty rate at thirty seven percent. The La Plata Mountain of Southwest Colorado are considered a sacred place for the Navajo...
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...The Navajo Culture David Rodriguez Introduction to Cultural Anthropology ANT: 101 Amy Van Surksum June 24, 2013 The Navajo Culture American culture is made up of many different people, and many of those people come from Indian tribes. The United States Governments Federal Register lists 566 tribes recognized as of August 2012. One of those tribes is the Navajo which can be found primarily in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Navajo culture is one that many people associate with by what is portrayed in movies. People view the culture as land raiding individuals that pillaged and wreaked havoc with anyone and anything they came in contact with. Navajo started from the beginning in what is known as Changing Woman, and is one of the myths in Navajo belief which is identified as both creator and protector. She is the first and pre-emanate mother that has bestowed certain ceremonies that protect the people from evil forces. Changing Woman is believed to have lived on a small pacific Island where she created the Earth Surface People along with the Dine` known as the Navajo. Changing Woman sent the people on a long migration when she saw that the island was getting to small from the people multiplying. Changing Woman did not send them empty handed, so she sent them on the journey with sheep and horses to the land between the sacred mountains. In the early eighteenth century is when Navajo pastoralism arose, men and women incorporated livestock and before long...
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...Dr. Lori Alvord’s is a part of two worlds where in one she is a surgeon and in the other, she is a member of the Navajo Nation. Despite a scalpel being some tool surgeons use, Alvord’s “surgeon world” is represented by the scalpel because she had to cut and sew pieces of her identity together for her worlds to co-exist. As it is stated in the introduction, “the words “Navajo” and “surgeon is not often seen together. (1)” Alvord had to perform an incision on her identity to give herself a functioning reality of her dreams and desires. Her Navajo Culture is represented as a silver bear because Alvord wears a trinket on a necklace which represents her Navajo heritage. Alvord stated, "The scalpel is my tool...but may 'Silver Bear', my Navajo beliefs...
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...The Navajo Indians Mind, body and spirit are the foundation of the Navajo community. The Navajo culture is known to be very primitive and reserved. This could cause some complications in the health care field. Their basic lifestyle may lead to several health complications, belief in prayer and evil spirits is prominent, they believe that the role of a physician is to be a partner in their healing, there are several nursing practices that need to be considered when caring for a Navajo patient, and as a nurse it is important to treat these people with respect even if their ways may seems unorthodox. The traditional Navajo Indians have a very primitive lifestyle. This means that they don’t necessarily have the best living conditions and don’t always maintain the best nutritional status. They are known for living off of the land and providing what they can for one another. Poor living conditions and lack of proper nutrition can lead to a multitude of health issues. Traditional Navajo homes are made of timber and mud. They usually heat their homes by fire. During winter or cold weather, the Navajos are at risk for hypothermia. Their diet consists of wild game, goats, wild berries, and other vegetables they grow themselves. So, again, during the wintertime, they may not be able to grow enough food to maintain adequate nutrition. This can result in vitamin, electrolyte, and other deficiencies within their community. One deficiency found in the Navajo culture is that of vitamin D....
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...Enhancing the Awareness of Navajo Indians Michele Amoroso, Holly Bulian, and Tara Smallidge Loyola University Enhancing the Awareness of Navajo Indians Native Americans are composed of numerous, distant tribes, bands and ethnic groups, many of which survive as intact, sovereign nations. Once a self-governing, self-sufficient people, America Indians were forced to give up their homes and their land, and to subordinate themselves to an alien culture. From the origin of their tribes in the 1500’s to the early nineteenth century, American Indians have experienced oppression. Today, American Indians are more numerous than they have been for several centuries (Andersen & Collins, 2012). Today, Native Americans have a unique relationship with the United States. Since the late 1960’s, political participation has led to an expansion of efforts to teach and preserve Indigenous languages for younger generations and to establish a greater cultural infrastructure. This paper will discuss the specific tribe of the Navajo Indians to create awareness of their history, oppression, and current state in today’s world. The word Navajo comes from the phrase “Tewa Navahu”, meaning highly cultivated lands. The Indians largely reside in New Mexico and Arizona. The Navajo Indians originally began their tribes in the 1500’s. They traded maize, or corn crops, and woven cotton items such as blankets for things such as bison meat, and various materials, which were made for tools and weapons. Homes...
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...The Makings of a Navajo Society Anthropology 101 The Dineh or "The People" as the Navajo call themselves are a horticultural society that migrated to the Southwest between the fourteenth and fifteenth century. They relied on what little food that they could hunt or gather but because of the lack of water in the region, grew to largely depend on their herds of sheep as both a source of food and wealth in their society. The Navajo are made up of a matrilineal society, where the women took care of the family and the household, while the men go hunt. They are a very spiritual people that believe in the balance and harmony of one’s life, which is obtained through many religious rituals and the help of a medicine man. The Navajo people are a very full and colorful society but due to wars and forced migrations into territories, have slowly faded into today’s society and are still losing the brilliant and peaceful culture that made them so strong, so long ago when just worrying about what pattern they would weave was a burden. The Navajo tribe is not really made up of any social organization, in a sense that there is no rank or political position in their tribe. The hierarchy is more determined by kinship and the family that a person resides with. There is a tribal leader in the Navajo community but he does not really have any coercive power or authority, unlike today’s tribal hierarchy which is similar to our own democracy. It...
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...further personalized to meet the needs of families with specific cultural considerations. In the United States, we are a nation of many cultures that are able to co-exist with each other, but that does not mean that the traditions of the past are forgotten. On the contrary, the traditions are what make up the individual’s core. Heritage, by definition, are traditions, achievements, and beliefs that are part of a history of a group or nation (Merriam-Webster, 2015). The heritage assessment tool is used to have a better understanding of people and family members and how to better help them. The heritage assessment tool was used to assess three different people on their culture, traditions, religious affiliations and languages that are used in their family. The cultures that were featured in the interviews are Filipino-American, German American and Native-American. The heritage tool is used to gauge the needs of the family and develop plans for health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration. Filipino- American The Romero’s- native to the Philippine’s The Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia that is a made up of a conglomerate of seven thousand islands. A former Spanish territory, it has a population of about 100,998,376 people the main religions is Roman Catholic which eighty percent of the population practices. The official languages of the Philippines are Tagalog and English. There are eight different dialects spoken in the Philippines as...
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...This article was downloaded by: [University of Texas El Paso] On: 09 August 2011, At: 13:50 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Bilingual Research Journal Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ubrj20 Language Learning in the American Southwestern Borderlands: Navajo Speakers and Their Transition to Academic English Literacy Gloria Dyc a a University of New Mexico-Gallup Available online: 22 Nov 2010 To cite this article: Gloria Dyc (2002): Language Learning in the American Southwestern Borderlands: Navajo Speakers and Their Transition to Academic English Literacy, Bilingual Research Journal, 26:3, 611-630 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2002.10162581 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently...
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...The Navajo of the American Southwest Timothy Barker The Navajo of the American Southwest “The one called farm is your mother. Those that are called your livestock are your mother. Those called sheep are your mother. Sheep are life.” Begishe and Werner (as cited in Whitherspoon, 1970) The Navajo of the American Southwest are the largest recognized tribe in the United States. The Diné (meaning “the People”), as they prefer to be called, were originally nomadic hunter and gathers. They migrated from the pacific northwest of North America about 700 years ago. After encountering the Spanish in the 16th century, who introduced the Navajo to sheep, they soon became pastoral and started growing small crops. In the following, their social organization, kinship system, beliefs, and healing practices will be briefly examined to gain a better insight into their unique culture. To the Navajo all society and culture in inexorable tied to its world of mythology. In the mind of the Navajo there are of the Fourth World of creation. In the Fourth World, First Man and First Woman took a turquoise figure of a baby girl and laid it between two perfect buckskin blankets. While they sand the sacred songs, Wind entered between the buckskins. Afterwards First Man removed the top buckskin revealing a baby girl who was to be called Changing Woman. She was called this because she reached puberty in 12 days. From the union of Changing Woman and the Sun are all the Earth Surface People, the Navajo...
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...Josphat Minja 29 September 2014 INTRODUCTION Culture is that aspect or part of our existence or life that makes us different to the majority of the world but similar to certain people. It is a way of life common to a particular group of people who share a collection of attitudes, beliefs and patterns of behavior that enable them to live together in harmony but at the same time setting them apart from other people. One such culture is that of the Native Americans. Native Americans have diverse and rich cultures that are based on a deep spiritual relationship with the land they live in and the natural resources. They have a history that is rich in strife, struggle and triumph. In fact, most of America’s modern life is considered to be adapted from native Indian cultures practiced many centuries ago. This then shows that there is a lot to be learned from the Native America cultures as well as their beliefs about their relationship to the natural world. This paper is aimed at analyzing the Native American culture and the European culture with an emphasis on their beliefs about the natural world as well as their agricultural techniques and how they relate to the modern world. Many of the familiar features in modern day America that may be taken for granted originated from the Native Americans. The peace pipe, moccasins, totem pole and the teepee are an example of integral pieces that wove together a large picture of the Native American culture. Everything from animals to plants to the...
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