Day 41 (D-20) The Navajo Nation

WARNING:  A LONG POST TODAY.  
It's time to spend some time with the Navajo people. You can read some of it today and return to this page on another day if you like.

The Navajo Nation, a nation within a nation, lies in three states: Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. "The Navajo Nation" means the land, kinship, language, religion, and the right of its people to govern themselves. Members of the Nation are often known as "Navajo" but traditionally call themselves  "Diné" (sometimes spelled in English "Dineh") which means "The People" in Navajo.  

The land area of the reservation is 71,000 km2 (27,413 square miles) making it by far the largest Indian reservation in the United States.  

According to the 2016 census, the Navajo Nation had a population of 356,890. 

Nearly half of the enrolled members of the Navajo tribe live outside the nationʼs territory.  As of 2016, 173,667 Dine live on tribal lands.  

IMPORTANT: A little history-->

In January of 1864, President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act forced more than 8500 Navajo men, women and children to leave their ancestral land and to march for hundreds of miles (500 km). Some Navajos escaped and hid at Navajo Mountain, along the Little Colorado and Colorado Rivers. During the march, which is called The Long March of the Navajo, they were forced to leave their elderly and their young children behind to die. Traveling in harsh winter conditions for almost two months (some sources say 18 days), about 200 Navajo died of cold and starvation. The Navajo were led by the army to live on an area of 40 square miles (103.6 square kilometers), called Bosque Redondo in eastern Arizona territory and in New Mexico territory. Bosque Redondo was a miserable failure, because of poor planning, disease, crop infestation and generally poor conditions for agriculture. Many Navajos died there.
On June 18, 1868, the once-scattered bands of people who called themselves Diné, set off together on the return journey, the "Long Walk" home.  This is one of the few times where the U.S. relocated a tribe to their traditional boundaries.  The Navajo were granted 3.5 million acres (14,000 km2) of land inside their four sacred mountains.  The Navajo also became a more cohesive tribe after the Long Walk and were able to successfully increase the size of their reservation since then, to over 16 million acres (70,000 km2).  

http://www.viewzone.com/day3w.html

(The Long Walk)

For vocabulary go tohttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/
OR http://www.wordreference.com/

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Here is some more information you can READ about the Navajo people and after that, even better, LISTEN to the Navajo tell you about their culture.

-- "Yá'át'ééh" (sounds a little like yah-ah-t-ay) = Hello.

--Albert Laughter, a Navajo, wrote on his site: "The word "Navajo"... I am used to being called Navajo. It is a Spanish word that has a meaning that is not nice. It means renegade. We call ourselves Diné (dee-neh)- like our language. It is our identity and our heritage. I would prefer to be called a Diné."  But in fact, "Navajo" means "large field" or "large planted field", containing nava "field" and hu "valley".  The Spanish "Navajo" was used in the 17th century in reference to the area now in northwester New Mexico.

--HOUSES: A hogan, a Navajo home, is made of wood and, in the past, they were covered with mud. Traditionally, it has eight sides and the entrance is facing east. Many Navajo homes don't have electricity, running water, telephones.

--FOOD: Fry bread = flat wheat bread made by North American Indians of the southwestern part of the United States.  It is cooked by frying in deep fat until light brown and puffed on both sides.

Navajo tacos = fry bread with pinto beans, chopped lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and shredded cheese.

--WORK: The Census Bureau said the average unemployment rate in tribal areas in Arizona was 21.6 % in 2016.  https://www.indianz.com/News/2018/05/10/-despite-gains-native-american.asp

--ART: Their traditional arts consist of finely woven blankets, richly detailed silver and turquoise jewelry, and a distinct style of painting based on "sandpaintings". Turquoise is considered one of the four sacred stones of the Dine'.

--RELIGION and ILLNESS: According to the Navajo religion, the Universe is a very delicately balanced thing. If this balance is upset, some disaster - usually an illness - will follow. The sandpainting is done in a careful and sacred manner, according to the ancient knowledge of the art. As the patient is seated atop the completed sandpainting, the medicine man bends to reverently touch a portion of a figure in the sandpainting, then moves to touch the patient, transferring the medicine as power. As this is done, the sickness falls from the person and harmony returns. Then, before the sun sets, the sandpainting is erased with a sacred feather, and the person rises to walk in beauty once again. 

-- Trading posts : In exchange for the trader's goods the Navajos traded wool, sheep, and (later on) rugs, jewelry, baskets, and pottery. It was years before cash was used between trader and Navajos.

--To go hiking in the Navajo Nation, you must have a guide.

--What do you know about the Navajo language and The Second World War?

PLEASE LISTEN to the Navajo talk (in English) about who they are. They speak very slowly. (3 links):
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-qcPiJvTqE&feature=player_embedded# 
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nmYycZel-4&feature=related 
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IULcoYx7kH8&feature=related

Two more links:
1) http://www.bigorrin.org/navajo_kids.htm  (very simple, easy to read) 
2) http://www.discovernavajo.com/ 

My best,
Jane
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VOCABULARY: 
--census = counting the number of people living in a particular place
woven = "tissé"
renagade = an outlaw; a rebel
wheat = "du blé"
shredded cheese = "fromage rapé"
unemployment = "chômage"
later on = later
http://www.wordreference.com/ (bilingual dictionary)

GRAMMAR:
"I AM USED TO BEING called Navajo." = Je suis habitué à être appelé Navajo.
I AM USED TO WRITING a post for this blog every day!  Again, I found it necessary to make this one a long one.