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Navajo Indians
One of the largest of the Native American Tribes, they lived in the Southwest of the United States and Northern Mexico.
1,124 Questions
What does the word kayenta mean in Navajo?
Kayenta is thought to come from a earlier Navajo name for the are recorded as Tye-nde by Father Haile in 1908 or so. He said it meant "place where wild aninimals fall in" or "game pit" for catching antelope or other game. His translation is hard to figure out.
The modern Navajo name is: Tó Dínéeshzhee'
"Toh"( prounouced t-woh) means "water" . The second part means spread out like a hand or fringe. The creek near here does that.
How is beautiful spelled in Navajo?
There are several ways that are sometimes translated as "walk in beauty".
This is very common: hózhǫ́ó naasháa doo
or
hózhǫ́ógo naasháa doo
They occur in many ceremonial chants, songs and rituals. Also in modern poetry.
The word sometimes translated as "beauty" actually is a philosophical and religious term that is very important in Navajo culture. It means a much larger set of things than the English word "beauty".
Hózhǫ́ means all these English concepts and words in one idea: "beauty, harmony, peace, balance, order, health, happiness, contentment, wholeness, goodness and dynamic symmetry and holistic asymmetry".
To "walk in it" means to move through ones life in this state of balance.
What is the native American name for land?
Today we are all aware of our planet and the extent of the land we inhabit; there are maps, globes, books and websites that give every piece of information we need about our own country.
Native Americans had no such information and were only aware of their own immediate surroundings, plus the lands of their immediate neighbours - the lands further away were only vaguely understood. They had no concept of the planet or countries beyond the sea - their world view was completely different to ours.
There was no word in any native American language that corresponds with "North America" or "The Americas" or "The New World". Native pace-names are confined to small localities such as villages, hills, rock formations, islands or peninsulas and it was the European explorers who took these local locatives and incorrectly applied them to much larger areas. Examples are Tennessee and Canada, both of which come from local native words meaning a village, settlement or meeting place.
Why did the Navajo make hogans?
To live in and to have traditional ceremonies. Asdzaan Nadleehe (changing woman, the principal deity) is said to have made the first one. All the parts of it connect symbolically to the universe. There are places in it where men and women, guest, medicine men, should sit and where sleeping, eating, etc must take place
Who were allies with the Navajo?
Not really in there way the word is usually meant, ( two or more governments or tribal groups that agree to fight and protect each other).
The Navajo traded with and intermarried at times and visited all the Pueblo people in the area such as the Zuni, Hopi, Acoma ,Zia, Jemez, Taos, Laguna. But the also raided them at times too.
They have much in common with their linguistic cousins the Apache groups that live near them. There was back and forth with trade and marriage and cultural ideas with the Western Apache.
The Ute, Kiowa, Comanche, Plains Apache and Mescalero Apache conducted slave raids against them for at least 150 years. The sold the slaves to the Spanish for horses. The Navajo conducted counter raids against them and the Spanish too.
The Southern Paiute have lived near them for centuries and today produce most of the baskets that are used for traditional ceremonies.
They had contact with the Hualapai, Yavapai and Havasupai and others but were neither allies or enemies.
How do you say redtail hawk in Navajo?
Hunter is: naalzheehí
The mark over the final vowel makes it high tone. Tone changes meaning in Navajo. naal-zhey -hi (i is as in "bit") low, low, hi tone
How are the members of the Navajo tribal council chosen?
24, elected by the residents of each "Council Delegate's" area of representation. There were 88 until Jan. 2011
Why were the Japanese unable to decipher the messages of the Navajo code talkers?
They were unable to decipher the code talkers communications because ti was not a code or a cipher. A cipher implies that there was a way to convert encode a message and later unencode it to get the message. This does not work for language translations.
What is the Navajo word for black paw?
The word for the color black in Navajo is: łizhiní
This is a a hard word for many English speakers. The first sound is in Navajo and Welsh but not in English. Put you tongue in the L position, don't use your voice and blow out on the sides of your tongue. The i is like in "bit' . The line over the vowels make them high tone. The zh is like in "pleasure".
What is the winds role in the Navajos origin legend?
The winds role in the Navajo creation ceremony is that if the wind blows it makes people walk. If the wind is not blowing, the people do not come to life.
How do you say i agree in Navajo?
hágoóneeʼ indicates agreement, acceptance, OK or alright in Navajo.
The marks over the vowels mean they are high tone, sing those a little higher note.
Where there is an O with no mark next to the O with one it means the tone is rising in this case.
The mark at the end is a glottal stop consonant.
How do you say I love my son in Navajo?
Shimá is " my mother" in Navajo.
The mark over the a makes it high tone not stress or accented. Each vowel is said and are short, i as in bit and a as in father.
Mother is a word in Navajo that must always be in the possessive. (my mother, yours, his, someones, theirs, etc). Terms for relatives and body parts and some other things ate grammatically like this in Navajo.
What where the tipis that the Navajo tribe made where made out of?
The Navajo people did not traditionally use tipis. They lived in wood and earthen buildings called hoghan. Today, if you see tipis on the Navajo Nation they are usually being used for a Native American Church ceremony. They are usually made of canvas.
What is the Navajo word for star?
The word is: kʼos. The k' is a glottalized "k" sound. That means you sort of hold your breathe like you would when you say "uh oh" and then say the "k" sound. Most Navajo consonants have a glottalized and normal le: version. It makes it a completely different meaning in Dine' bizaad. There are T and T', Ch and Ch', K and K'. Tl and Tl', Ts and Ts'. The "o" is like the english o in "hose".
What is the difference between the Navajo and Iroquois?
They have very little in common. Not really much more than any other randomly picked pair of cultural groups. For example you could ask what do Germans and Turks have in common. They are both in the same continent and both fought the Russians, but they have little else in common. Similarly, the Navajo and Iroquois both fought the US government. Both grow corn and live in permanent houses. Otherwise their history, language environment, religion and other traditions have very little inn common. The main thing they have in common is they both had difficult relationships with the US government and their attempts to take their land and eliminate their culture and language. The Navajo did not have any contact with Americans until mostly after 1864 while the Iroquois had intense contact from the 1650 onward. Therefore much more the the language and culture of the Navajo is still intact.
What special traditions did the Navajo tribes celebrated?
The Navajo have a very large and complex and still actively practiced ceremonial system. The "backbone" of the chantway traditions are said to arise from the ceremonies first performed for Changing Woman.
Pretty much all of the ceremonies are about restoring and or maintaining hózhǫ́ This is is an important Navajo concept meaning all the English concepts of beauty, harmony, peace, balance, happiness, contentment, order, wholeness, and goodness in one idea and word. Ceremonies last from one to nine days and are communitiy events centered on restoring the hózhǫ́ for a patient. Other ceremonies are held for house blessings, female first menstruation ceremony, first laugh ceremony for a baby and many others. There are about 60 chantways.
Other important traditions are the various Navajo Nation Fairs, the Miss Navajo contest, Veterans Day and Halloween.
lots! being a Navajo i would know!:) we live like normal people..... but of course like many cultures we are different. what we eat and how we eat and the way we live. we eat sheep, corn, frybread, and many natural things. (we believe in being one with nature) we mostly eat with the frybread and pray to the sun gods when we wake up in the mornings thanking him for the weather and our neat home. we live in hogans that we made ourselves and use natural things to keep our body clean. many native Americans still live in these ways. many still of the older generation. they are big believers of the old teachings while the younger generation is moving on with time. :)
What is the Navajo word for people?
Naakáí dinéʼiʼ
"Person from Mexico"
Naakáí means Mexico.
The marks above the vowels are high tone marks. The mark between the e and i is a consonant called a glottal stop.
How many Navajo code talkers served in the military?
Some Navajo were drafted but the Code Talkers were volunteers.
