Perhaps the most influential Native American Tribe, the Navajo tribe boasts a heritage rich in culture, diversity, and tradition.
Being the largest American Indian tribe, the history of the Navajos bears a significant impact on the historical evolution to not only its prosperity in present times but also for the American Indian tribe.
But how so? We review the historical development of the most popular tribe in the US and how its development impacts the perception of Native Americans today.
Navajo Tribe History
Early History and European Contact
As with most Native American Indian tribes, the Navajo trace their history back to the migration of their ancestors from Asia down to Northern America.
Oral traditions of the tribe often reflect stories of such migration.
However, the first evidence that points to the arrival of the tribe to present-day America goes as far back as 1400 AD, when the Navajo people and the Apache’s ancestors, the Athabaskan, invade Southwest America.
Following migration to Southwestern America, the tribe soon quickly adopted the lifestyle of the Pueblo tribe, who resided in the vicinity of the Navajo’s newfound territory.
Adopting the Navajo lifestyle saw the tribe shift from their predominant hunting and gathering occupation to planting the three major crops of the Pueblo people’s tradition, often called the “Three Sisters,” namely squash, corn, and beans.
The tribe’s first contact with Europeans was with the Europeans, who also contributed fairly to some lifestyle changes in the Navajo community.
With interaction with The Spanish, the Navajo people embraced the rearing of livestock, specifically goats and sheep.
This led to meat becoming an important food item in the Navajo tribe’s diet, and sheep became a testament to social status, even taking up the role of currency.
The tribe women also eagerly embraced weaving they had adopted, spinning wool into blankets, and other high-value artistic items, which were then sold.
Though the tribe adopted several cultures from the Pueblo people, the interaction between both tribes was delicate.
Many of the oral traditions that point to the Navajo tribe embracing the Pueblo tribe ideas are inconsistent with Pueblo oral history and the difference in the language of both tribes.
The Navajo and Pueblo tribes considered each other valuable trading partners.
The practice of trading can be traced back to the migratory days of the Athabaskans, ancestors of the Navajos and Apaches.
They traded bison meats, stones, and hides for Pueblo maize and cotton materials.
However, the intertribal rivalry that was common during communal living in the 17th century can be seen in the Pueblo tribe’s efforts.
They restricted information about their traditions and practices from the Navajos. They also rescheduled their ceremonies to avoid clashes with tribe raids.
Though the Navajos and the Apaches are known to descend from the Athabaskans, the details surrounding when a distinction between them came about remain convoluted.
However, it is believed that both tribes were referred to as the Quechos by the Spanish as far back as the 15th Century.
In the 17th Century, particularly in the 1620s, Spanish explorer Fray Geronimo de Zarate-Salmeron used the term Apache de Navajo to refer to the tribe.
The 17th Century saw the Navajos and the Spanish develop a relationship that transcended between trading and military expedition in alliance or against each other.
Somethings, these alliances extended to a third force, a Pueblo tribe, the Hopis.
The Navajos, Spanish, and other tribes in the Southwestern region of present-day America continued a lifestyle of trading, culture adoption, military alliances, and expeditions against each other.
This continued until the mid-18th Century when the Americans arrived.
18th Century
The earliest interaction between the Navajo tribe and the American dates back to the Mexican-American war when US Army General Stephen W. Kearny invaded the Santa Fe Area with 1,600 men in 1846.
That same year, they reached an agreement of peace with Colonel Alexander Doniphan of the US, who spearheaded the American war efforts in the Mexico-US war.
The treaty only partially ensured peace as both parties broke their terms in launching minor expeditions against each other.
However, in 1849, a more definite and binding treaty was signed between the Navajo head chief Mariano Martinez, Chapitone, the Second Chief, and US Army Colonel John MacRae Washington.
The treaty’s terms made way for the construction of trading posts and forts on Navajo land in exchange due to American donations and “other humane and liberal measures.”
Despite the hope of assuaging both parties in withholding violence, the killing of a prominent peacemaker, Narbona, marked another cause of conflict for both parties.
Though the establishment of forts on their lands went ahead, the killings of Navajos by the Americans reached a new high.
The period (the 1860s), which saw settlements and crip destroyed, several Navajo warriors killed, and children and women enslaved, is referred to as the Naahondzood (“fearing times”) by the people.
At the height of this intense period for the tribe, about 9,000 Navajo tribe members were subjected to a force 300 miles to Fort Sumner in New Mexico.
This period saw the loss of multiple tribes members to diseases, hunger, military raids, Abd weather elements.
The Treaty of Bosque Redondo in 1868 ended the fearing times as the tribe was allowed to settle in a reservation in their former territory.
The reservation status of the tribe helped organize the tribe and soon established tribal police to prevent raids and negotiate peace on behalf of the tribe.
The tribe also were employed as”Indian Scouts” by the military, who had established forts on Navajo territory.
19th Century–Present Day
Between the 1870s to the early 20th Century, the Navajo time in the reservation saw the Americans making efforts to incorporate them into civilization.
One of the efforts to achieve this was by sending Navajo children to boarding schools located within the reservation and outside.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) also established schools for Navajos.
The older individuals were not receptive to the idea of sending their children to school and sometimes hid their children.
The compulsory use of English in schools gravely affected the Navajo language, which led to significant language loss.
The children were taught only in English at these schools and prevented from speaking the language.
The children also faced a militarized environment where they were gravely punished when caught attempting to escape.
They endured other inhumane conditions, such as overcrowding, insufficient food, and military-styled haircuts and uniforms.
All of these continued until the 1929 Meriam Report, which paved the way for changes in the educational policy of Navajo children.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, the US government imposed the Navajo Livestock Reduction on the tribe.
This was due to the deterioration and erosion of grazing areas brought about by the unusually high livestock owned by the tribe.
This greatly affected the people as for women in matrilineal and matrilineal parts of Navajo Soviet, livestock grazing was the primary source of income for women.
The policy received pushback from the tribe, who had little power to stop its implementation.
The Navajos Code Talkers recorded overwhelming success in World War II, as they relayed messages in their language, which was difficult to understand for the Japanese.
They also proved integral to the development of military code in the US Marine Corps (USMC).
Their noteworthy contribution to the USMC earned them not only a chapter in the USMC’s history but also the gratitude and respect of Americans.
The remaining years of the 20th Century, down to recent times, saw the economic and social development of the tribe.
Navajo Tribe Culture
Religious Belief
The Navajo tribe held religious beliefs based on creation myths about four worlds and two classes of people.
The tribe’s creation myth dubbed the Diné Bahaneʼ details four worlds, with the first being the Dark World, where the Diyin Diné resided and from where the First Woman and Man emanated.
The darkness of the world makes it impossible for life to flourish, and thus the First Man and Woman moved on to the second world.
The Blue World, known as the Second World, was populated by mammals and the Táshchózhii, the Swallow Chief.
The First Man and Woman had offended him, so they moved southwards, arriving at the Yellow World, the third world.
The four sacred mountains were found in the Yellow World, but a great flood had led the First MSN, Woman, and the Holy People to move on to the third world.
They took permanent residence in the Glittering World, or the Fourth World, where true death came into existence and celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, and star.
By instruction from the Diyin Diné, the Earth people were never to leave the boundary of the four holy mountains, namely the:
- Blanca Peak (Sisnaajiní – White Shell Mountain), located in Colorado
- New Mexico’s Mount Taylor (Tsoodził-Turquoise Mountain)
- Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks (Dookʼoʼoosłííd — Abalone Shell Mountain)
- Colorado Hesperus Mountain (Dibé Nitsaa — Big Mountain Sheep)
The tribe also believed the number four heated sacred emphasis.
The tribe had four Diyin Diné; they sang four songs in rituals, four times of day or color (color represents tones of day or sacred mountain in Navajo culture), and four original clans.
Navajo culture also features the celebration of ceremonies to prevent and cure diseases.
During the ceremony, the leader ensures the presence of Holy people at the beginning. They then identify the patient using spiritual guidance.
The leader uses positive words and the reinforced manifestation of words to describe the patient’s transformation into good health.
The Evil Way or Enemy Way ceremony helps counteract external influences from the Diné.
BlessingWay ceremony establishes good things, harmony, and peace with the Dine.
The Night Chant ceremony, which purifies and heals patients through prayers to spirit beings, is held over multiple days and features 24 dancers.
Dancers in religious ceremonies adorn themselves with buckskin masks.
Traditional Homes
The traditional home of Navajo tribe members called a hogan, is built to fit genders.
Make hogans are either conical or square with a unique rectangular entrance as opposed to female hogans, which have eight sides.
The home is made with logs and kids, with the door set to face the beach for the early morning sun to penetrate its rays into the house.
Hogans are also built for other practices, such as ceremonies, as certain ceremonies are carried out in Hogans.
Hogans played an important role in Navajo religion with a religious song titled BlessingWay detailing an account of the first hogan, which was built by Coyote, who had assistance from the Beavers, and purposed it to be a home for Talking God and the First Man and Woman.
The traditional way of making hogan remained with the Navajo until the beginning of the 20th Century when hogans began to be built in octagonal and hexagonal patterns.
Though the tribe has modernized its hogan with modern construction materials and techniques, it remains the major dwelling for the tribe.
Clan and Family System
The Navajos had an exogenous clan system, where members could marry only outside their clans, extending as far back as the clans of grandparents, extending as far as four generations back.
Clans were not limited to geographical regions as clan members could live miles apart but be connected by the uniting bond of clanship.
The family structure of the Navajo family is matrilineal, and as such, families of women-owned possessions such as livestock, planting areas, residences, and grazing areas.
When a Navajo man marries, he resides in the dwelling of his bride and with her mother’s family.
Female family relatives and daughters receive generational inheritances, and in instances of marital dissolution or separation, the property and children go to the woman.
Children are said to be “born to” the mother’s family and “born for”the father’s side.
The eldest male sibling of a woman has a strong influence over the woman’s children. Adults male represent the clans of their mothers in political affairs.
The Navajo tribe culture viewed each gender equally, as one cannot exist without the other.
Women are believed to carry the bulk of the load in fertility, but males are expected to provide economic resources for fertility.
White corn is consumed in marriage ceremonies as corn is a symbol of fertility.
The lack of provision by a man in a premarital or marital relationship is considered stealing or immoral.
Navajo Tribe Facts
1. The Navajo Nation has the largest land mass of all Native American tribes and the largest Native American population.
The Navajo tribe has a settlement that spans 27,000 square feet and is larger than the state of West Virginia, extending to three states: New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.
During the covid pandemic, the rush to benefit from federal hardship benefits saw the tribe’s rise from 306,268 to 399,494.
The spike in registration established the tribe as the largest registered Native American population.
2. The Navajo Code are National Heroes
The Navajo code talkers’ efforts were integral to the United States’ war efforts against the Japanese during World War II.
The details of the contribution of the code talkers to the US war efforts remained a secret until 1968.
On June 26, 2001, the 29 original Navajo code talkers received the Congressional Gold medal, while others were given the Congressional Silver Award.
3. The Navajo Tribe territory is one of the most scenic locations in America.
The territory belonging to the Navajo tribe in present-day America boasts of the stunning wonderment of nature, which has caught the eyes of nature lovers.
More than 12 Hollywood movies have been shot in Monument Valley in the heart of the Navajo territory.
These movies include Forest Gump and Back To The Future III.
Conclusion
The Navajo tribe may have endured a different experience from colonial times down to the interaction with the Americans.
However, their historical tales tell the story of a tribe that has rigorously fought to survive and thrive amidst multiple efforts to impede its progress.
