How long has Navajo sand painting been around?

Answer 1

As with many things about the Dine' (Navajo) there are several answers to this.

The traditional Dine' answer is that before the humans in this world were created by Changing Woman, the Holy People in the world before such as First Man, First Woman, Changing Woman, Spider Woman, Monster Slayer, Born of/for Water, etc. maintained permanent paintings of sacred designs on spider webs, sheets of sky, clouds, and some fabrics, including buckskin. When the First People, the Dineh, were guided by First Man into the present world, they were given the right to reproduce these sacred paintings to summon the assistance of the Holy People. But ownership of them could lead to evil because "Men are not as good as we(the holly people); they might quarrel over the picture and tear it and that would bring misfortune; rain would not fall; corn would not grow." Therefore, it was decreed that they must accomplish the paintings with sand and upon the earth. They must be destroyed in a ceremonial manner after their use in healing. Any actual painting of a "sandpainting" should be altered to prevent this.

The first ceremonies are all said to date from from Changing Woman's Kinaalda (first menstruation) ceremony. The Beauty way is said to come from this. The next would have been the first enemy way ceremony to cure the Hero Twins after they rid the world of the monsters. If you count a generation as the Navajo length of what the Navajo say is the true length of a human life, 102 years and look at the stories that would put the first emergence of the Navajo as a people into this world at about 700-900 AD or so. That would be when Sand painting began.

Thw Western science answer is no one really knows. The oldest recognizably Navajo structures date from the wood at 900-1100 so perhaps the Apachean group that became the Navajo entered the area a little before this time. This is pretty close to the traditional Navajo story timeline of First Emergence into this fourth or fifth world by the way. They clearly learned many things from their Pueblo new neighbors. Amoung them probably was weaving, planting corn and using pollen, and sand painting. Many Navajo clans claim origin in intermarriage to Pueblo groups so it could have happened that way or by trade. From Navajo stories it seems they were there at the high point of the Chaco large Kiva culture times. It any case the Navajo have made Sand Painting very must a key part of religious practice and thought and much elaborated on it as they have with weaving too. There are thought to be 600-1000 different sand designs.

A few people want to believe that sand painting didn't enter Navajo life until the aftermath of the Great Pueblo Revolt in the 1680-92 time period when various Pueblo peoples joined the Navajo in fear of Spanish reprisals. There does seem to be much evidence for this late date but there is no record on way or another because none are permanent.