Coyote – A trickster god common to many Native American tribes including the Apache and the Navajo. Like his younger sisters Estsanatlehi and Yolkaiestsan he was born of the union of the sky god Yadilyil and the Earth goddess Naestsan. Among many other deeds he is credited with creating the Milky Way and with teaching Yebaad (First Woman) and Yebaka (First Man)about sex. His advice and intrigues just as often bring disaster as prosperity for the Navajo. Yebaka – First man. The chief and spokesperson of the male deities. With his wife Yebaad he created the people of the world. He is the foster father of Estsanatlehi and Yolkaiestsan.
Noqoìlpi, the Gambler: A Navajo Myth
Some time before, there had descended among the Pueblos, from the heavens, a divine gambler or gambling-god, named Noqoìlpi, or He-who-wins-men (at play); his talisman was a great piece of turquoise. When he came, he challenged the people to all sorts of games and contests, and in all of these he was successful. He won from them, first their property, then their women and children, and finally some of the men themselves. Then he told them he would give them part of their property back in payment if they would build a great house; so when the Navajos came, the Pueblos were busy building in order that they might release their enthralled relatives and their property. They were also busy making a race-track, and preparing for all kinds of games of chance and skill. When all was ready, and four days’ notice had been given, twelve men came from the neighboring pueblo of Kinçolíj (Blue-house) to compete with the great gambler. They bet their own persons, and after a brief contest they lost themselves to Noqoìlpi. Again a notice of four days was given, and again twelve men of Kinçolíj — relatives of the former twelve — came to play, and these also lost themselves.
For the third time an announcement, four days in advance of a game, was given; this time some women were among the twelve contestants, and they too lost themselves. All were put to work on the building of Kintyèl as soon as they forfeited their liberty. At the end of another four days the children of these men and women came to try to win back their parents, but they succeeded only in adding themselves to the number of the gambler’s slaves. On a fifth trial, after four days’ warning, twelve leading men of Blue-house were lost, among them the chief of the pueblo. On a sixth duly announced gambling-day twelve more men, all important persons, staked their liberty and lost it. Up to this time the Navajos had kept count of the winnings of Noqoìlpi, but afterwards people from other pueblos came in such numbers to play and lose that they could keep count no longer. In addition to their own persons the later victims brought in beads, shells, turquoise, and all sorts of valuables, and gambled them away. With the labor of all these slaves it was not long until the great Kintyèl was finished. The Navajo also have their own stories about gambling, most famous being the tale of Noqoìlpi, the Gambler. While the whole story of this deity is elaborate, the moral is easy to spot. Noqoìlpi was a gambling god who’s name literally means that he is the one who beats people at games. He came from the heavens and started challenging people to games and contests. Of course, being a supernatural entity with a talisman, he easily beat them all. He first took their property, then their wives, and finally their freedom. However, another god, Qastcèyalçi eventually defeated Noqoìlpi, making him lose everything he had. Gambling is a dangerous obsession that leads to ruin if you are reckless and full of pride, or that’s what we guess the story is about.
Naayéé’neizghání (Slayer of Monsters) and Tóbájíshchíní (Born for Water) are the Navajo Hero Twins.
Navajo Hero Twins
When the Spirit People came upon this earth from below they made six sacred mountains, four on the distant horizon at the cardinal points and two in the centre, Chaali and Tzalhnahodaahla. On the eastern slope of Chinli, brought forth as the daughter of Earth and Sky, was born Ylkaiestsan, White-Shell Woman. First Man took her to his home near Tzalhnahodahla, where she matured in twelve days into a beautiful woman with supernatural powers. Later she lived in a home of her own at the foot of this mountain. It was while there that she gave birth to twin boys who became saviours of their people, slaying alien gods who were fast depopulating the earth.
In Navajo mythology, Black God (Haashchʼééshzhiní), is seen as the god of fire and creator of the constellations. Fathered by Fire and suckled by a Comet, Black God the personification of Fire, is also seen as the inventor of the fire drill. He is not typically portrayed in the admirable, heroic fashion of other Gods. Instead, he is imagined as old, slow and apparently helpless, and other times he is imagined as a moody, humorless trickster who “passes himself off as poor so that people will be generous to him. Black God is commonly depicted as having a crescent moon on his forehead, a fullmoon for a mouth, the Pleiades on his temple and he wears a buckskin mask covered in sacred charcoal with white paint.
Origin Myths of the Navaho Indians
Diné Bahaneʼ (Navajo: “Story of the People”), the Navajo creation myth, describes the prehistoric emergence of the Navajo as a part of the Navajo religious beliefs. It centers on the area known as the Dinétah, the traditional homeland of the Navajo, and forms the basis of the traditional Navajo way of life and ceremony. The basic outline of Diné Bahaneʼ begins with the creation of the Niłchʼi Diyin (Holy Wind) as the mists of lights which arose through the darkness to animate and bring purpose to the four Diyin Dineʼé (Holy People) in the different three lower worlds. This event happened before the Earth and the physical aspect of humans had come into existence, but the spiritual aspect of humans had. The Holy People then began journeying through the different worlds, learning important lessons in each one before moving on to the next. The fourth and final world is the world in which the Navajo live in now.
VISIONS OF THE SPIDER GODDESS – On their way west toward their father Tsohanoai’s house, Nayanazgeni and Tobadzistsini passed the Grand Canyon, which in Navajo mythology was the Place Of Emergence through which the Navajo people entered this world after escaping the previous one. (Navajo emergence myths and their stories of the previous worlds are too lengthy to get into right now) Reaching a stretch of desert, they soon noticed puffs of smoke emerging from the ground. On closer inspection they realized they had come across the underground lair of Naste Estsan, the spider goddess, who lived underground in similar fashion to a trap-door spider. She welcomed the Heroic Twins in and assumed her form as an elderly woman. In addition to feeding them she informed them she knew all about their plans to rid the world of the menace of the Anaye. She revealed to them that she herself was the mother of the chief Anaye, Yeitso, with their own father Tsohanoai as the father. (In some versions she goes on to tell them that Yeitso then joined with her over and over to spawn the rest of the Anaye.)
It is said that Changing Woman was found on a flat – topped mesa wrapped in many colors of light. Anyone who has been to the Pedernal can find pieces of rock called chert/flint cast in every color of the rainbow). On a level place below the summit First Man and First Woman laid a turquoise figure on two pieces of buckskin that were spread on the stone from east to west in the sun. Wind and Water Sprinkler were there. When the Holy People began to sing the song the wind flowed under the blankets and a child appeared. The Holy People told the couple her name was Changing Woman and instructed them to take her and raise her as their daughter.
Yá’át’ééh! Welcome
The Navajo Reservation
Situated in the northeastern portion of Arizona and in the northwestern part of New Mexico is the Navajo reservation. Now the largest Indian reservation in the United States, comprising as it does nearly ten million acres, or nearly fifteen thousand square miles. The Navajo reservation spans into northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico and southeast Utah. Being equal in size to the combined areas of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The home of the Navajo Indians has always been considered one of the most arid and barren portions of the Great American Desert.
Navajo Indians, numbering about 20,000, constitute the largest group of Indians belonging to the Athapaskan, or Déné stock. Other groups of the same stock are the Apaches (Ndé), Lipanes (Lipa Ndé), Hupas of California, and various Déné tribe inhabiting British Columbia and Alaska (see DÉNÉS). This points to a migration of the Navajo, centuries ago, from the extreme north. They themselves have a vague tradition of the “Diné Nahodoni”, i.e., “other Navajos”, living far away. According to their myths they emerged from lower worlds somewhere in the San Juan Mountains in south-west Colorado. At present they occupy an extensive reservation in the north-east corner of Arizona and the north-west corner of New Mexico; but many of them live beyond its borders, especially towards the south. Formerly their habitat extended somewhat farther to the north-east.
At more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members as of 2021, the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the U.S. (the Cherokee Nation being the second largest); the Navajo Nation has the largest reservation in the country. The reservation straddles the Four Corners region and covers more than 27,000 square miles (70,000 square km) of land in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. The Navajo language is spoken throughout the region, and most Navajos also speak English.
The states with the largest Navajo populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (108,306). More than three-quarters of the enrolled Navajo population resides in these two states. Besides the Navajo Nation proper, a small group of ethnic Navajos are members of the federally recognized Colorado River Indian Tribes.
The Navajos are speakers of a Na-Dené Southern Athabaskan language which they call Diné bizaad (lit. ‘People’s language’). The term Navajo comes from Spanish missionaries and historians who referred to the Pueblo Indians through this term, although they referred to themselves as the Diné, is a compound word meaning up where there is no surface, and then down to where we are on the surface of Mother Earth.
Navajo Code Talkers in World War II
General Douglas MacArthur meeting Navajo, Pima, Pawnee and other Native American troops.
Many Navajo young people moved to cities to work in urban factories in World War II. Many Navajo men volunteered for military service in keeping with their warrior culture, and they served in integrated units. The War Department in 1940 rejected a proposal by the BIA that segregated units be created for the Indians. The Navajos gained firsthand experience with how they could assimilate into the modern world, and many did not return to the overcrowded reservation, which had few jobs.
The name “Navajo” comes from the late 18th century via the Spanish (Apaches de) Navajó “(Apaches of) Navajó”, which was derived from the Tewa navahū “farm fields adjoining a valley”. The Navajos call themselves Diné.
Oral Stories
The Navajo Tribe relied on oral tradition to maintain beliefs and stories. Examples would include the traditional creation story Diné Bahane’. There are also some Navajo Indian legends that are staples in literature, including The First Man and First Woman as well as The Sun, Moon and Stars. The First Man and Woman is a myth about the creation of the world, and The Sun, Moon and Stars is a legend about the origin of heavenly bodies.
Silverwork
The Navajos’ hallmark jewelry piece called the “squash blossom” necklace first appeared in the 1880s. The term “squash blossom” was apparently attached to the name of the Navajo necklace at an early date, although its bud-shaped beads are thought to derive from Spanish-Mexican pomegranate designs. The Navajo silversmiths also borrowed the “naja” (najahe in Navajo) symbol to shape the silver pendant that hangs from the “squash blossom” necklace.
Ever since they are a peaceful and pastoral people, living by, with, and off their flocks of sheep and goats. Though the arid character of their country – good for grazing purposes only – forces them to lead a nomadic life, yet most of the families have one abode for their main home, generally in a well-watered valley, where they raise corn, beans, potatoes, melons, oats, alfalfa, etc. The Navajo women weave the renown Navajo blankets, noted for their durability, beauty, and variety of design, and careful execution, whilst a number of men are clever silversmiths, making silver necklaces, belts, bracelets, wristlets, rings, buttons, etc., of rare beauty, out of Mexican silver dollars. They have always been self-supporting. They have little of the sullen, reticent disposition attributed to Indians generally, and are cheerful, friendly, hospitable, and industrious. Their government is democratic; there is no chief over the whole tribe, and their local chiefs are men of temporary and ill-defined authority, whose power depends largely upon their personal influence, their eloquence, and their reputation for wisdom and justice. The tribe is divided into about 58 clans or gentes, grouped under several original or nuclear clans.
Navajo Four Cardinal Directions
East – Ha’a’aah
South – Shádi’ááh
West – E’e’aah
North – Náhookos
East – Ha’a’aah
Dawn, birth, beginning of life, a new beginning of each day. Goal setting visualizing, conceptualizing, and developing mental strength capabilities.
Realization,creativity, reasoning, awareness,developing ideas,and forming opinions.
Develop good memory skills and sensitivity. Intellectual development and becoming innovative.
North – Náhookos
Darkness mysteriousness – aging process spiritual wholeness – confidence – reflection – competency – evaluation. Questioning. Full implementation in strategic planning, goal setting, implementing, reviewing and revising an evaluation, display mental strength and emotional stability, comfortable living, understanding, lifetime learning and living well. Obtaining a sense of balance with self and surrounding surroundings. Obtaining strong mental stability.
South – Shádi’ááh
Planning identify resources, gather information, analyze-express emotional stability, understanding, identity capabilities and possibilities.
Becoming creative, understanding, generosity, care through understanding of key. Understand I love, emotional stability. Develop awareness of good health and the importance of eating healthy foods daily exercise. Third, the importance of self-sufficient. Self-support, self-governance. Recognize your role and responsibilities in the clan, and extended family and community
West E’e’aah
No parental role and responsibilities. No purpose of living no family values and principles, no primary and extended family, clan members-use correct term – the terminology in relationships, no appropriate behaviors and acceptable attitude. Make positive relationships and teasing. No accomplishments and implementation, production, results, construct and revise life goals and objectives, missionary person. Active in family social activities as well as general community concentrations.
Movement to highlight missing Native women expands to men
The Justice Department also looked at a 2016 study funded by the National Institute of Justice that shows Native men are 1.3 times more likely to experience violence than non-Hispanic, white men. It doesn’t specifically address deaths and disappearances, but federal officials say it points to underlying causes such as stalking, and physical and sexual violence, and a lack of shelters and treatment centers on tribal land.
How the Navajo Nation won a hard-earned political voice in Utah
The Medicine man (Hatałii) plays a dominant role in the Navajo culture and holds great respect and honor among the Navajo people. He is important because he has knowledge of the heritage and culture of the Navajo and because he has a tie to the past, a tie to The People’s history, legends, and myths that are slowly fading away as the old die. The Medicine man is the holder of truth about the Navajo way of life. Through his mouth, principles of goodness and prosperity are taught to the people. Thus, he is a man of great significance, not just because he is a healer or has knowledge of herbal medicine, but because he preserves the traditions and beliefs of the Navajo.
Chief Manuelito or Hastiin Chʼil Haajiní (“Sir Black Reeds”, “Man of the Black Plants Place”) (1818–1893) was one of the principal headmen of the Diné people before, during and after the Long Walk Period. Manuelito is the diminutive form of the name Manuel, the Iberian variant of the name Immanuel; Manuelito roughly translates to Little Immanuel. He was born to the Bit’ahnii or ″Folded Arms People Clan″, near the Bears Ears in southeastern Utah about 1818. As many Navajo, he was known by different names depending upon context. He was Ashkii Diyinii (“Holy Boy”), Dahaana Baadaané (“Son-in-Law of Late Texan”), Hastiin Ch’ilhaajinii (“Man of the Black Plants Place”)[2] and as Nabááh Jiłtʼaa (War Chief, “Warrior Grabbed Enemy”) to other Diné, and non-Navajo nicknamed him “Bullet Hole”.
The Bluebird Song in the Navajo Language
Learn more about the Diné (Navajo):
Long before the theory of the ‘land bridge from Asia to North America across the Bering Strait’, Navajo elders told their own story about their own origin. The Navajo (DINE’) creation is the story of their origin through a series of emergences through a series of different colored worlds.
Accounts vary as to the exact number and colors of the worlds, for example, black, then blue, then yellow, then glittering, all of which lead up to their final emergence in the present world.
Ancient Navajo and Native Americans Migrations
First Contact with the Navajo – 1540
The Americans and the Navajo
The Mexicans and the Navajo
The Spanish and the Navajo
Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo
Antonio el Pinto Chief of the Navajos
Indigenous Peoples Literature 