Navajo Native American Tribe

By Anna CarneEd 205

Main Menu

• History• Where They Lived• Where They Live Now• What They Lived In• Jewelry Making• Traditional Dance• Music• Instruments• Religion

•Language•Food•Traditional Dress•Children•Navajo Matching Puzzle•Navajo Matching Puzzle Answer

Sheet•T/F Quiz•Author Slide•Concept Map•Resources

History• The Navajo land was larger than ten of the fifty states in America• During WWII the Navajo language was used to created codes to fight

against the Japanese• The Navajo Flag was designed by Jay R. Degroat. He was a Navajo from

Mariano Lake, New Mexico. His flag was chosen from 140 entries, and was officially adopted by the Navajo Nation Council on May 21, 1968

• Navajo, or Dine as they call themselves, is the largest tribe of North American Indians.

Where they lived• Before the Navajo people lived in the United

States, they lived in Northwestern Canada and Alaska. Over 1,000 years ago they began to travel south and reached the southwestern United States. They lived in states such as Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah covering over 27,000 square miles.

Where They Live NowThe Navajo reservation is currently the largest

in the United States. There are more than 140,000 people living on it. The reservation is about 16 million acres. Most of the land is in Arizona. The Navajo still weave from wool and use natural vegetable dyes for color. Today, people try their best to live like the old days along with the modern lifestyle, but some now use modern technology.

Click the Rug to Read about Navajo Weaving

What They Lived In

• The Navajo Indians lived in homes called hogans. They are made from wooden poles, tree bark, and mud. The doorway opened to the east so they could welcome the sun.

Types of Hogans •Circular Stone Hogan•Log Cabin Hogan•Modern House•Summer Shelter

Jewelry Making

Navajo Native Americans years ago and still today work silver and semiprecious stones into beautiful inlay and overlay pieces of Jewelry. They use stones suck as Coral, Malecite, Opal, Turquoise. Still today jewelry remains a strong tradition, and their jewelry is prized both tribally and all over America.

Traditional DanceClick to Watch Traditional Navajo Dance

Women perform the Basket Dance and the Men perform what is called the Fancy Dance. Dance is once of the most loved and prominent of the Navajo traditions and is still used today during Navajo ceremonies and celebrations.

InstrumentsNavajos used

Drums and rattles for their instruments. They would play drums to create music for the ceremonial and spiritual dances. The drums are made of a wooden frame or a hollowed-out log, finely tanned buckskin or elk skin stretched across the opening by sinew thongs.

Hit the Drum to Watch a Navaho Drum Circle

Photo By Anna Carne

Religion

The Navajo believe in an Almighty that is the spiritual force that is the source of all life. There are religious leaders as well as temples and shrines. Unlike the Christian God the Navajo force takes no form. Another difference between the Navajo religion and the Christian religion is that the Navajo believe that when you die your spirit goes to another universe or world where you continue to live like you do on this Earth. Christians believe in going to heaven to be with God.

LanguageThere is a lot of humor in the Navajo language when it comes to day to day conversation. Humor makes difficult and frustrating things into bearable and even pleasant situations. The strong emphasis and value Navajos place on humor is evidenced in the First Laugh rite. The first time a Navajo child laughs out loud is a time for honor and celebration. The Navajo language has played a highly significant role in helping the entire nation. During World War II, the Navajo language was used as a code to confuse the Japanese. Navajos were taken and trained in the U.S. Marine Corps to become "code talkers" on the front-line. Today, these men are known today as the Navajo Code Talkers. Their code has proven to be the only code that could not be broken during World War II. Although not all tribal members speak the language fluently, most Navajos have a strong respect for it.

This was the Symbol of the Code Talkers

Food http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LopJbzueRQ.

Click below to learn how to make Navajo Fry Bread

The very first Southwest Native Americans hunted mammoths until they became extinct. Then people began to hunt buffalo, or in other words bison. They would also collect wild plants for food, and learned to grow maize, or corn. Corn became domesticated in Mexico and became the Navajo’s most common grain.

When U.S. soldiers came to take the Navajo land, they put the Navajos into crowded camps. The government would supply lard, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder or yeast, and powdered milk. These ingredients were often rancid. Fry bread came from these few foods provided during the 4 years of captivity. Since that time, it has become common food at most all PowWows of numerous tribes.

Traditional DressMany Navajos continue to wear traditional clothing everyday. Traditional dress consists of velvet, turquoise, and silver. Some Navajos only wear it during ceremonial or social gatherings. The Navajo woman's traditional style of dress consists of foot or knee-high moccasins, a pleated velvet or cotton skirt, a matching long-sleeve blouse, sash belt, jewelry and a shawl. Men also wear jewelry, moccasins and a velvet shirt.. It is believed that before an individual can receive help from the Great Spirit, one must first wear appropriate clothing in order to be recognized.

Children

Children would spent most of their first years strapped to mother. When old enough the relatives would watch the child and teach the children the tribal ways. Girls would practice making food, pottery, basket weaving, and sewing. Boys would learn to hunt and make tools and weapons. After a child would reach puberty, the girls would go off with the women, and the boys would have to pass a test of courage.

Navajo Matching Puzzle

• 1. Boundaries• 2. Ceremony• 3. Harvest• 4. Dine• 5. legends• 6. Hogan

A. an earth covered house of the Navajo Indian

B. a special celebration or ritual for a notable occasion

C. the outer limits of an area; its borders on all sides

D. gather in, as crops, when fully ripened

E. popular stories handed down through generations whether true or fanciful

F. Navajo Indian word meaning people

Navajo Matching Puzzle Answer Sheet

• 1. Boundaries, C. the outer limits of an area; its borders on all sides

• 2. Ceremony, B. a special celebration or ritual for a notable occasion

• 3. Harvest, D. gather in, as crops, when fully ripened• 4. Dine, F. Navajo Indian word meaning people• 5. Legends, E. popular stories handed down through

generations, whether true or fanciful• 6. Hogan, A. an earth covered house of the Navajo Indian

Navajo T/F Quiz

1. Navajo children are raised only by their parents T/F

2. Navajo tribes lived in Arizona and Utah T/F3. The Navajo people began to make Fry Bread

because of the lack of food good given to them by the U.S soldiers T/F

4. The Navajo religion is just like the Christian religion T/F

Author’s SlideHello my name is Anna Marie Carne and I am the author of this PowerPoint. I decided to choose Navajo’s as my topic because I am going to be a history teacher and I thought that it was an appropriate history subject. Another reason for choosing Navajos is because I recently returned from a trip to Arizona where I took the photograph seen on the Navajo Jewelry slide and filmed the young Navajo boy dancing on the traditional dance slide. I was inspired to do this PowerPoint because I was so amazed at what I saw and learned from the Navajo people I met in Arizona.

Email Me!

Concept Map

Resources• Bernstein, Bruce . "A Brief Social History of Navajo Weaving." The Collector's Guide. 1995. Museum of New

Mexico. 4 Aug. 2009 http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa064.shtml • Detterick-Pineda, Cynthia. "Navajo Fry Bread and Indian Tacos." What's cooking America. 3 Aug. 2009

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/NavajoFryBread.htm • Eck, Pam , Diane Dwenger, Rachel McDonough, and Bridgette Zellers. ""Dialogue of Respect"." The Study

of Native Americans. 1998. 4 Aug. 2009 http://inkido.indiana.edu/w310work/romac/native.htm.• "Explore the Navajo Nation." Native Americans. 4 Aug. 2009 http

://www.americanwest.com/pages/navajo2.htm • "How to make Fry Bread.” YouTube. 25 Nov. 2007. YouTube. 3 Aug. 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LopJbzueRQ. • <Native American Jewelry. 1998. Native Languages of the Americas. 3 Aug. 2009

http://www.native-languages.org/jewelry.htm.• "Welcome to the Navajo Nation Government." 2005. Navajo Nation. 3 Aug. 2009

http://www.navajo.org/history.htm.

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