What did the Navajo use to make sand paintings?

Answer 1

Navajo sandpaintings are used in healing ceremonies. The paintings often depict the Holy People and are considered to be living entities. The medicine man chants while creating the painting to ask the Holy People to come into it and heal the sick.

Authentic sandpaintings are sacred and must be destroyed after use. They are not to be made for any purpose except spiritual ones. Souvenir sandpaintings are created with errors so as to not offend the holy people.

Answer 2

Dry paintings are used in important Navajo ceremonies. Most of them are healing ceremonies. The patient sits of the painting. They are just a part of the larger ceremony. Today, many of these ceremonies are performed every year. They must be done exactly. The sand of the painting is gathered up and scattered afterwards. They are made of naturally colored sand, crushed gypsum (white), yellow ochre, red sandstone, charcoal, and a mixture of charcoal and gypsum (blue). Brown can be made by mixing red and black; red and white make pink. Other coloring agents include corn meal, corn pollen, flower pollen, or powdered roots and bark.

Someone who is not a Medicine Man (or Hatałii) should not try to make one. It is taboo and could make you very sick or die.

"the sand painting is a dynamic, living, sacred entity that enables the patient to transform his or her mental and physical state by focusing on the powerful mythic symbols that re-create the chantway odyssey of the storys protagonist, causing those events to live again in the present."

Answer 3

Dry paintings are not traditionally done as works of art or by artists. They do not just use sand. Pollen, cornmeal, flowers, ochre, gypsum, charcoal and other items are used. They are used as a part of a larger traditional healing ceremony. In English these are often called "chantways", hatáál in Navajo. The designs act a bit like a portal for the Diyin dine' (holy people) to come. It is made by letting the powders drip from the practitioners hand. So it has to be ground finely to make lines and designs.
There are about 60 chantways. Each ceremony can have about 30 paintings . They are still performed. A traditional ritual practitioner usually knows 2 or three ceremonies. It takes years to properly learn the multi-day ceremonies. They involve chants, songs, prayer, myth, dance, herbs, dry paintings and other activities depending on the chantway. It is all performed and coordinated by the Hataałii and his assistants. Often the patient is placed on the dry painting while different parts of the ceremony are performed. Usually the image related to the mythic story or prayer being performed. After the ceremony is done the painting is swept up. In some ceremonies some is put in a bag for the patient to sleep on for a few days.
Sand and other ingredients are used so the power gathered into the place for the ceremony can be dispersed afterwards. The painting can absorb the toxic power in the patient. Because of the sacred nature of the ceremonies, the sandpaintings are begun, finished, used and destroyed within 12 hours. It could be dangerous if it was not. People could get sick in various ways, physically or spiritually.
Starting about 100 years ago (around 1916-19) in order to preserve some sand paintings Hastiin Tłʼa (Hasteen Klah meaning Mister or Sir Lefthand) started making permanent sand painting and weaving of the designs. He changed them in subtle ways so others and he would not get sick. He was a Hataałii. Others, in time, followed his practice. They became popular with white collectors and started to be sold around 1945-55. Some still make them for sale to this day.

Answer 4

Traditionally, used in ceremonies to restore the patient to harmony and health.

Answer 5

To heal the sick