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[American Spanish Navajó, originally a place-name, from Tewa navahū, large arroyo with cultivated fields.]
Navajo Nav'a·jo' adj.Way of Life
The Navajo were formerly a nomadic tribe. In winter they lived in earth-covered lodges and in summer in brush shelters called hogans. They farmed (corn and beans), hunted (deer, elk, and antelope), and gathered wild vegetable products. After sheep were introduced (early 17th cent.) by the Spanish, sheep raising superseded hunting and farming. Thus the Navajo became a pastoral people. They have adopted many arts from their neighbors—from the Mexicans metalworking, from the Pueblo weaving. They live in extended kinship groups, and traditional inheritance is through the mother's line; women have an important position in the society. The traditional Navajo religion is elaborate and complex, with many deities, songs, chants, and prayers and numerous ceremonies, such as the enemy way ceremony (commonly called the squaw dance) and the night chant. The vast belief system includes a creation story that states that Esdzanadkhi (a form of Mother Earth) created humanity. The Navajo have also subscribed to the peyote cult.
In the 1930s the overgrazed and eroded grasslands of the Navajo Reservation caused the federal government to reduce the tribe's sheep, cattle, and horses by as much as 50%. The government, having left the Navajo without a means of support, began a program of irrigation projects, thus enabling them to turn to agriculture for a livelihood. Farming, however, can support only a fraction of the people, and as a result many have had to obtain their income off the reservation. The discovery of coal, oil, gas, and other minerals has helped to increase the tribal income.
History
The Navajo are a composite group with over 50 separate clans. In the 17th cent. they occupied the region between the San Juan and Little Colorado rivers in NE Arizona, but they ranged far outside that territory. The Navajo were a predatory tribe who (often in alliance with their relatives, the Apache) constantly raided the Pueblo and later the Spanish and Mexican settlements of New Mexico.
When the Americans occupied (c.1846) New Mexico, the Navajo pillaged them. Punitive expeditions against the Navajo were only temporarily successful until Kit Carson, by destroying the Navajo's sheep, subdued them in 1863–64. A majority of them were imprisoned for four years at Fort Sumner in New Mexico. In 1868 they were released from prison and given a reservation of 3.5 million acres (1,41,000 hectares) in NE Arizona, NW New Mexico, and SE Utah and a new supply of sheep. The Navajo then numbered some 9,000.
Since that date they have been steadily increasing in number. By 1990 the country's 225,000 Navajo constituted the second largest Native American group in the United States. Their reservation has grown to 16 million acres (6,475,000 hectares), today sustaining such enterprises as lumbering, mining, and farming. Navajo-owned enterprises are growing, including the largest Native American newspaper in the United States and Navajo Community College, the first Native American–operated college. The Navajo reservation surrounds the Hopi reservation in Arizona. This has resulted in numerous land disputes, and in the 1960s and 70s, Navajo expansion on lands set aside for joint use provoked court action and a partition of the disputed land. A 1992 federal court decision assigned most of the remaining disputed land to the Navajo. Some Navajo were permitted to remain on Hopi land under 75-year leases.
Bibliography
See R. M. Underhill, The Navahos (1956); C. Kluckholn and D. Leighton, The Navaho (rev. ed. 1962); L. R. Bailey, The Long Walk: A History of the Navaho Wars, 1846–1868 (1964); L. Gilpin, The Enduring Navaho (1968); J. U. Terrell, The Navajos (1970); J. Downs, The Navajo (1972); F. McNitt, Navajo Wars (1972).
A tribe of Native Americans, the most numerous in the United States. The Navajos have reservations in the Southwest.
| Navajo |
|---|
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| Total population |
|
298,215 as of 2000 census |
| Regions with significant populations |
| United States (New Mexico, Utah, Arizona) |
| Language(s) |
| English, Navajo |
| Religion(s) |
| Navajo Way, Christianity, Native American Church (NAC), other |
| Related ethnic groups |
| other Southern Athabascan peoples |
The Navajo Nation (Diné in Navajo language) encompasses all things important to the Navajo. The land, kinship, language, religion and the right to govern themselves. The Navajo Homeland covers about 26,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometres, 17 million acres) of land, occupying all of northeastern Arizona, and extending into Utah and New Mexico, and is the largest land area assigned primarily to a Native American jurisdiction within the United States. Members of the nation are often known as Navajo (or Navaho) but traditionally call themselves Diné (sometimes spelled in English as Dineh) which means people.
The 2000 census reported 298,215 Navajo people living throughout the United States, of which 173,987 were living within the Navajo Nation boundaries. 131,166 lived in Arizona and 17,512 of these lived in Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix. Because the Navajo Nation encompasses land in three states, its Division of Economic Development extracts census data for the Navajo Nation as a whole, and sends a representative to the Census Board. Another group lives on the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation along the Colorado River in California and Arizona.
The Nation's boundaries are the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation at the Four Corners Monument and stretch across the Colorado Plateau into Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico.Located within the Navajo Nation are Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Monument Valley, Rainbow Bridge National Monument, the Hopi Indian Reservation, and the Shiprock landmark. The seat of government is located at the census-designated city of Window Rock in Apache County, Arizona. There are several adjacent "Navajo Indian Reservations" (such as Alamocita) in this area, but generally function as sub-units of the "Big Rez" with considerable local autonomy). The Diné's traditional boundaries are the four sacred mountains, which actually include an area much larger than the present-day reservation. The eastern portion of the reservation, located in New Mexico is popularly called the "Checkerboard" because Navajo lands are mingled with fee lands (owned by both Navajo and non-Navajo people) and federal and state lands under various jurisdictions. Large non-contiguous sections of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico are: Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation in western Cibola County and southern McKinley County; Alamo Bend Navajo Indian Reservation in northwestern Socorro County; and Canoncito Indian Reservation in western Bernalillo County and eastern Cibola County. The total land area of the reservation is 62,362.062 km² (24,078.127 sq mi), making it by far the largest Indian reservation in the United States. It is almost exactly the same size as the state of West Virginia; it is slightly larger in land area, but slightly smaller if water area is included. Its resident population was 180,462 as of the 2000 census.
Other Amerind tribes are located in this area, including several Pueblo nations: Congress established a Hopi (Navajo, Oozéí, or Ayahkinii "underground-house-people") reservation within the Navajo Nation's reservation at an historic homeland where Hopi history predates that of Diné in the area. Adjacent or nearly adjacent to the Navajo Reservation are the Southern Ute of Colorado, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, both to the north; the Jicarilla Apache to the east, and other tribes to the west and south. A conflict over shared lands emerged in the 1980s, when the Department of the Interior attempted to relocate Diné living in the Navajo/Hopi Joint Use Area. The conflict was resolved, or at least forestalled, by the award of a seventy-five-year lease to Diné who refused to leave the former shared lands.
Prior to the Long Walk, traditional Navajo government was based upon regional communities and extended family leaders who worked together by consensus. (See Navajo people for more about Navajo traditions.) Europeans have tried to overlay their notions of government upon the Navajo for centuries.
In 1863 and 1864, as the anglo settlers' demand for land grew, the United States government forced more than 8,500 Navajo men, women and children to march in harsh winter conditions for hundreds of miles to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico (Present-day Ft. Sumner) as part of President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act. Some Navajos were able to escape and hide at Navajo Mountain. As the march went on, the Navajo were forced to leave their elderly and young children behind to die. Five months later, the Navajos arrived at Bosque Redondo. Many Navajos died at the wretched prison camp, due to poor living conditions. The Navajos were imprisoned for about six years, and released in May 1868. Bosque Redondo had been proved as a miserable failure, because of poor planning, disease, crop infestation and generally poor conditions for agriculture
After the Long Walk, the United States Government's Indian Policy determined the administration of the reservation. Appointed federal individuals (Indian Agents) essentially ruled the reservation, sometimes relying on the counsel of traditional Navajo methods of government. The current tribal government was established and recognized by the federal government in 1923.
The Diné have refused three times to establish a new government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Members twice rejected constitutional initiatives offered by the federal government in Washington, first in 1935 and again in 1953. A reservation-based initiative in 1963 failed after members found the process to be too cumbersome and a potential threat to their self-determination. A constitution was drafted and adopted by the governing council but never ratified by the members. The earlier efforts were rejected primarily because members did not find enough freedom in the proposed forms of government to develop their livestock industries, in 1935, and their mineral resources, in 1953.
In 2006 the Committee for a Navajo Constitution started to advocate for a Navajo constitutional convention. The committee was formed by Ivan Gamble and includes three former Navajo Presidents, Hon. Kelsey Begaye, Hon. Peterson Zah, and Hon. Peter MacDonald, and other noted individuals. The committee's goal is have representation from every chapter on Navajo Nation. The committee proposes that the convention be held in the traditional na'achid/ modern chapter house manner.
Each tribe establishes its own requirements for being an enrolled tribal member, which is usually based on "blood quantum." The Navajo Nation requires a blood quantum of one-quarter for a person to be an enrolled tribal member and to receive a Certificate of Indian Blood (CIB). In comparison, some tribes require a 1/32 blood quantum for issuing a CIB. In 2004, the Navajo Tribal Council voted down a proposal to reduce the blood quantum to one-eighth, which would have effectively doubled the number of individuals qualified to be enrolled Navajo tribal members.
Education, and the retention of students in all school systems, is a significant priority. A major problem faced by the nation is a very high drop-out rate among high school students. Over 150 public, private and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools serve students from kindergarten through high school. Most schools receive funding from the Navajo Nation under the Johnson O’Malley program.
The Nation also runs a local Head Start, the only educational program operated by the Navajo Nation government. Post-secondary education and vocational training are available on and off the reservation.
There are six types of secondary establishments, including:
Arizona Public Schools
New Mexico Public Schools
Utah Public Schools
Bureau of Indian Affairs Public Schools
Association of Navajo Controlled Schools
Navajo Preparatory School, Inc.
[1]
The only Navajo-sanctioned, college-preparatory school for Native Americans, Navajo Preparatory School recruits some of the best and brightest students of the Navajo Nation. Looking to the future, the school offers students a challenging, innovative curriculum in science, math, computers, and other traditional academic subjects. In harmony with the past, it steeps the youth in a deep appreciation of the Navajo Language, culture, and history. Armed with this impressive, balanced education, students graduate with the skills to succeed in college and an understanding of the world around them. Many will become leaders of their people and role models for future generations.
Located in Farmington, New Mexico, a few miles outside the Navajo reservation, Navajo Preparatory School's mission is: "To educate talented and motivated college-bound Navajo and other Native American youth who have the potential to succeed in higher education and become leaders in their respective communities. The school provides a rigorous academic program based on a strong foundation of Navajo Philosophy, supported by a residential environment that enhances individuality and independence.
The Navajo Nation operates Diné College, a two-year community college which has its main campus in Tsaile in Apache County, as well as seven other campuses on the reservation. Current enrollment is 1,830 students, of which 210 are degree-seeking transfer students for four-year institutions. The college includes the Center for Diné Studies, whose goal is to apply Navajo Sa'ah Naagháí Bik'eh Hózhóón principles to advance quality student learning through Nitsáhákees (thinking), Nahatá (planning), Iiná (living), and Sihasin (assurance) in study of the Diné language, history, and culture in preparation for further studies and employment in a multi-cultural and technological world.
The Navajo Nation Board of Education is an 11 member board instructed to oversee the operations of schools on the Navajo Nation and exercise regulatory functions and duties over education programs on the Navajo Nation. It was established by the Navajo Nation education code, Title 10 which was enacted in July 2005 by Navajo Nation Council.
The board acts to promote the goals of the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act of 2005 which include the establishment and management of a Navajo Nation Department of Diné Education, to confirm the commitment of the Navajo Nation to the education of the Navajo People, to repeal obsolete language and to update and reorganize the existing language of Titles 10 and 2 of the Navajo Nation Code.
It is the educational mission of the Navajo Nation to promote and foster lifelong learning for the Navajo people, and to
protect the culture integrity and sovereignty of the Navajo Nation. A Navajo Nation Board of Education meeting is scheduled the
first Friday of every month.
Through a ballot election process, the Board realigned their officers in 2006. The new officers are:
Jimmie C. Begay - President
Rebecca Benally - Vice President
Vee F. Brown - Secretary
Maijorie Dodge-Teacher representative.
Other members include elected representatives from Eastern Navajo Agency, Dolly C. Begay: Western Agency, Dr. Dolly Manson;
Ft. Defiance Agency, Katherine Arviso; and Shiprock Agency, Virgil Kirk, Jr. Presidential-appointed members are Juanita
Benally-Navajo Culture Representative, .
Diné government is unique in several ways. The Navajo Nation is divided into five Agencies. These are similar to counties and match the five Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agencies which support the Nation. The smallest political units are the Chapters, similar to towns. The Navajo Nation Council presently consists of 88 delegates representing the 110 Chapters, elected every four years by registered Navajo voters. As reorganized in 1991, the Nation's government at the capital in Window Rock has a three branch system: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.
The United States still asserts plenary power to require the Navajo Nation to submit all proposed laws to the United States Secretary of the Interior for Secretarial Review, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Most conflicts and controversies between the federal government and the Nation are settled by negotiation and by political agreements. Laws of the Navajo Nation are currently codified in the Navajo Tribal Code. The Bureau of Indian Affairs maintains five Indian Agencies within the Navajo Indian Reservation: Chinle, Eastern, Western, Fort Defiance, and Shiprock. The Agencies provide various technical services under direction of the BIA's Navajo Area Office in Gallup, New Mexico.
Local and federal law enforcement agencies that routinely work within the Navajo Nation include the Navajo Division of Public Safety, with the Navajo Nation Police (formerly the "Navajo Tribal Police"), the BIA Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Navajo governing council continues a historical practice of prohibiting alcohol sales within reservation boundaries. For some visitors of the area — often attracted by the Indian jewelry trade, by tourist attractions or by Interstate Highway 40 that passes through the area. Leaders and some member groups actively oppose the sale of alcohol, and have taken several measures to find and offer treatment for those members who are suffering from alcoholism.
There is no private land ownership within the Navajo Nation - all land is owned in common and administered by the Nation's government. Leases are made both to customary land users (for homesites, grazing, and other uses) and to organizations, including the BIA and other federal agencies, churches and other religious organizations, and businesses.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr. addressed the Navajo Nation Council in the annual State of the Navajo Nation Address on January 24, 2005 and presented his conviction to develop a new governing document for the Navajo Nation. President Shirley, who campaigned to return government to the Diné by government reform, stated that the document must establish the structure and authority of a central government. The Navajo Nation, being organized under a code, is subject to the Bureau of Indian Affairs unlike some other Indian nations that do not need BIA approval for most actions.
Office of President and Vice-President
Eleven (11) candidates ran in the 2006 Primary Elections:
The Primary winners faced off in the General Elections in November 2006:
Lynda Lovejoy is the first woman to ever make it to the General elections. She squared off with incumbent President Dr. Joe Shirley Jr. Three days after the primaries Lynda Lovejoy selected Walter Phelps Jr. of Leupp, Arizona as her running mate. The following day Dr. Shirley selected Councilman Bennie Shelly of Thoreau, New Mexico as his running mate. Both side of the campaign teams ran strong platforms winning the minds of the Navajo people
The 21st Navajo Nation Council convene immediately after the inauguration of the 6th President of the Navajo Nation, the Honorable Joe Shirley Jr. was once again sworn in as President for a 2nd term, with Vice-President elect Councilmen Ben Shelly.
Two term Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, the Honorable Lawrence T. Morgan ran for a 3rd term as Speaker of the Council, while running against Fort Defiance Council Delegate Harold Waneka in a run-off. Speaker Morgan captured a 3rd consecutive win, as Speaker of the 21st Navajo Nation Council.
*Kenneth Maryboy (Aneth, Utah/Red Mesa, Arizona/Red Mesa, Utah/Mexican
Water, Arizona)
*Davis Filfred (Aneth, Utah/Red Mesa,
Utah/Red Mesa, Arizona//Mexican Water,
Arizona)
*Former Council Delegate Mark Maryboy(Aneth,
Utah/Red Mesa, Arizona/Red Mesa,
Utah/Mexican Water, Arizona)
The Navajo Nation economy includes traditional endeavors such as sheep and cattle herding, fiber production, weaving, jewelry making, and art trading. Newer industries that employ members include coal and uranium mining, though the uranium market slowed near the end of the 20th century. The Navajo Nation's extensive mineral resources are among the most valuable held by Native American nations within the United States. The Navajo government employs hundreds in civil service and administrative jobs. One important business within the reservation is the operation of arts and crafts shops, selling handmade crafts. Other Navajo members work at retail stores and other businesses within the Nation's reservation or in nearby towns. Until 2004, the Navajo Nation had declined to join other Native American (indigenous) nations within the United States who have opened casinos. That year, the nation signed a compact with the state of New Mexico to operate a casino at To'hajiilee, near Albuquerque. Navajo leaders also negotiated with Arizona state officials in talks that could lead to casinos near Flagstaff, Lake Powell, Winslow, Sanders (Nahata Dziil Chapter), and Cameron (Grand Canyon entrance).
The Black Mesa and Lake Powell railroad serves one of the coal mines in the Dine region, carrying coal to the Navajo Generating Station at Page, Arizona. Another mine in the area, Peabody Energy's Black Mesa coal mine near Kayenta, a controversial strip mine, was shut down on December 31 2005 for its emission credits. This mine fed the Mojave Generating Station at Laughlin, NV, via a slurry pipeline that used water from the Black Mesa aquifer.
Currently, Navajo Housing Authority, the tribally designated housing entity for the Navajo Nation, has begun construction of new homes on the Navajo Nation with new materials which are more cost-effective and less prone to fire damage. Among the six agencies of the Navajo Nation, NHA housing developments exist. There is also the option for many families to build scattered-site homes on their traditional homesite lease.
"Hooghan," means the home for Navajos and it is the center of learning, and the traditional style of home of the Navajo is the hogan. Most modern housing in the Navajo Nation is detached single-family homes and mobile homes. Most homes in the Navajo Nation were built in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s, although older built homes do exist. Single-family homes are mostly rural-styled homes constructed of wood. Because many homes do not have access to natural gas and electricity, most homes use wood or propane for heat and cooking.
Due to the reservation's remote geographic location, many structures do not have telephone or public utility services and lack complete kitchen or plumbing facilities. However, infrastructure development has grown significantly through the years, affording Navajo families the modern conveniences of DSL, satellite television and even wireless access in some communities. The government subsidized phone program has brought even the most remote locations of the reservation in contact with the rest of the Navajo Nation.
Roads within the reservation vary in condition. Most federally operated U.S. highways are in excellent condition year-round and are suitable for vehicles of any size. Roads are generally unpaved in many rural areas and small villages. In the central parts of the Navajo Nation, near the Black Mesa (Arizona), roads are often only poorly maintained, and are sometimes in nearly unusable condition after very heavy rains. In general, except for the most remote regions, road conditions in the Navajo Nation are usually acceptable for routine use.
Several types of cancer are in evidence at rates higher than the national average on the Four Corners Navajo Reservation. (Raloff, 2004) Especially high are the rates of reproductive-organ cancers in teenage Navajo girls, averaging seventeen times higher than the average of girls in the United States.
It has been suspected that uranium mines, both active and abandoned, have released dust into the surrounding air and the water supply. Studies done on mice, exposing them to a soluble form of uranium similar to what might enter groundwater from the mines, showed heavy increases in estrogen levels which might explain the increased cancer levels among Navajo girls. The amount of uranium given to the mice was half the level permitted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and one-tenth the level found in some wells on the Navajo reservation.
Diabetes mellitus is a major health problem among the Navajo, Hopi and Pima tribes, about four times higher than the age-standardized U.S. estimate. Medical researchers believe increased consumption of carbohydrates, coupled with genetic factors, play significant roles in the emergence of this chronic disease.
| Navajo Nation |
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People and culture History |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
n. - navajo
adj. - navajo-
Nederlands (Dutch)
(taal van) navajo Indianen, betreffende navajo
Français (French)
n. - Navaho
adj. - navaho
Deutsch (German)
n. - Navaho-Indianer, Navahosprache
adj. - Navaho-
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ινδιάνος της φυλής Ναβάχο
adj. - των ινδιάνων Ναβάχο
Português (Portuguese)
n. - índio norte-americano da tribo dos Navajos
adj. - relativo aos Navajos, sua língua, ou sua cultura
Русский (Russian)
индеец племени навахо
Español (Spanish)
n. - tribu indígena de los EE.UU.
adj. - relativo a la tribu navajo
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - navajo
adj. - navajo-
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
纳瓦伙族印第安人, 纳瓦伙语, 纳瓦伙族印第安人的, 纳瓦伙的
中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 納瓦伙族印第安人, 納瓦伙語
adj. - 納瓦伙族印第安人的, 納瓦伙的
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 미국 인디언의 한 종족인 나바조족
adj. - 나바조족의
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ナバホ族
adj. - ナバホ族の
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) شخص يتحدث لغه النافاهو او من قبيله النافاهو (صفه) له صله بلغه او جماعه النافاهو
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אינדיאני משבט נבאחו (מדרום-מערב ארה"ב), שפת שבט הנבאחו
adj. - של שבט נבאחו ולשונם
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| History Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Navajo Nation". Read more |
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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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