What are facts abut Navajo houses?

Answer 1

Traditional Dine' homes are called Hogan in English and Hooghan ( long o not u and the gh is a sound like the ch in Scottish) in Navajo language (Dine' Bizaad). They were usually made of logs ( some times stone too) with earth covering all or part of it. They are very energy efficient because of this. Now they are made of many materials. They always have the door facing east. This is the cardinal direction in Dine' culture and maps for them have east at the top not north. There are two types of hooghan, as there are most things in Navajo, male and female. The male ones are rare nowadays. They are more cone shaped. the more common ones are 6 or 8 sided. Besides the door to the east there is a smoke hole in the center. sometimes now they have windows but never to the north. If someone died in a hogan in the old days it was abandoned and a hole was broken in the north side to remove the body. You should never enter a abandoned hogan with a hole on the north side. When being built there are always four post , one for each direction. There is a special blessing ceremony after it is built. People still do all this rituals and more today. The hogan has important and deep cultural, philosophical and religious meaning in it's every part. Navajo religious rituals must take place in one.

Answer 2

There are 300,000 members the Navajo Nation today. They live in all sorts of houses.

About a third live off the Navajo Nation mostly in urban areas.

Most of the rest who live on the Navajo Nation land live in a variety of housing. Because it is Tribal Trust they can have land use rights but cannot own the land. Some live in tribal housing or HUD housing, some live in housing provided by their job (health care or education usually), some live in their own house or mobile home or trailer. It is easier to get a loan for a mobile home than a house if you don't own the land as collateral for the bank.

The traditional Navajo home is called a hooghan ( in English: hogan). A few people still live in one. Others have one as a ceremonial space or extra room or as storage. The most common kind is round or 6 or 8 sided. The door always faces east. It has a domed, earth covered roof. Sometimes the whole structure is covered with earth. Traditionally it has a smoke hole and earth floor and no windows. The structure is often made of logs with a corbel roof. The can be made of other materials today and are not always earth covered. To be used for ceremonial purposes it needs to have four logs a the base structure and access to the earth and must be blessed in a ceremony. The hogan is described in the creation stories and each part has a symbolic meaning. The hogan described here are called female hogans. Everything in Navajo thought is gendered. There are also male hogans but they are not as common today and mainly used for sweat lodges.