MYTH AND RELIGION OF THE

NAVAJO INDIANS
 The sheer red sandstone walls of Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto rise

to a height of about 300 m (about 1000 ft) above the canyon floors, and ruins can be

found on the floors and in caves in the canyon walls. "Notable are the White House

Pueblo, occupied from about 1060 to 1275, and the Mummy Cave, dating from 1253"

("Canyon de Chelly National Monument" Encarta). The Navajo settled in this area

around the year 1700. Today, the tourist industry contributes more than $6.8 billion

every year to Arizona's economy. The state's attractions include the Navajo and Hopi

Indian reservations, the Anasazi Indian ruins in Canyon de Chelly National Monument,

and, in southern Arizona, the mission ruins at Tumacacori National Historical Park. The

Navajo National Monument, northeastern Arizona, was established in 1909. It is

located within the Navajo Indian Reservation, and it preserves three separate areas of

ancient Indian cliff dwellings. "Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, they are among

the largest known cliff dwellings. The largest of the three, Keet Seel, contains more

than 150 well-preserved rooms and kivas (ceremonial chambers)" ("Navajo National

Monument" Encarta). However, the Indian reservation is more than a tourist

attraction; it is the home of living people, and of their myth, religion, and history.

At present the Navajo are the largest Indian tribe in the U.S., with about

160,000 members. Their name for themselves is "Dineh," which means "the people";

they speak of "a wild, forested country in north central New Mexico . . . [called]

Dinnetah, the land of the people" (Underhill 15). Dinnetah is just east of the

reservation where the Navajo live now. Their population is growing fast, and this will

probably put great pressure on the traditional Navajo economy. Their reservation

lands total more than 6 million hectares (15 million acres), the largest in the U.S. The

Navajo also have the greatest tribal income in the U.S., at about $50 million from oil

and gas leases, as well as income from mineral and forest resources ("Navajo Indians"

1
Encarta). The Navajo household economy is based on herds of sheep and goats, some

cattle and horses, and employment in various jobs. They also make pottery and

baskets and are well known for their silver jewelry and fine, durable blankets. By the

mid-20th century, oil production and the discovery of rich mineral deposits on

reservation lands had greatly enhanced their economy.

The Navajo Indians live mainly in Arizona, and also in parts of New Mexico and

Utah. They have a complex religion based on their history and their own body of

myths. Today, many Navajo practice a religion based on peyote, which is a type of

cactus that produces a drug which causes hallucinations (Stewart Encarta). However,

this is a relatively new religious practice for the Navajo. Their creation myth and ritual

poetry are much older. Their ancient stories explain who they are and where they

came from. The number four has an important place in their beliefs and practices.

The number four is found in the four winds, the four directions, and the four worlds, as

well as other aspects of nature and religion. The Navajo gain a sense of identity from

their myth and religion by knowing about their past and looking toward the future.

The Navajo are a tribe of North American Indians of Athabascan stock. The

Athabascans, or Athapaskans, originally lived far to the north of New Mexico, in

western Canada. They lived in small groups of hunters and gatherers. No one knows

why they migrated southward over the plains and the mountains. "Many scientists

think that some Athapaskan bands first came into the American Southwest around the

year 1300" (Sundberg 8). They followed wild herds, hunting and gathering food as

they always had. But New Mexico is the place where the Navajo say that they began

their existence in the fourth world. They believe that there is a fifth world, where the

people will go some day.

The Navajo are closely related to the Apache, another Athabascan group who

2
migrated from Canada. "By the 17th century the Navajo had become a pastoral

people, with an economy based largely on herding and hunting" ("Navajo Indians"

Encarta). They suffered during the Indian Wars, when the U.S. cavalry forced the

Indian tribes of North America onto reservations. "In 1948, Arizona Indians won the

right to vote and began to enjoy some economic gains. In 1969 the first college on an

Indian reservation, Navajo Community College, opened in Tsaile" (Durrenberger &

Bowen Encarta). It is the first United States college to be established on an Indian

reservation.

The tribe includes more than 50 clans, and they trace their descent is through

their mothers. The Navajo must marry outside their clan. They live in extended

family units, with a whole range of responsibilities among relatives. Although modern

housing is available on the reservation, many Navajo still build and live in traditional

hogans. These are conical houses of logs covered with earth, which have a smoke

hole at the top and are entered through a short, covered passage. Traditional Navajo

religion includes the worship of the winds, rivers, and streams. as well as a number of

gods who sometimes intervene in human affairs. They often pray to these gods. They

make offerings to them and perform ceremonial dances in which the gods are

represented by painted and masked men. "Songs, chants, prayers, and sand paintings

also form part of the complicated religious rituals, and a large body of mythology

exists" ("Navajo Indians" Encarta).

A number of Arizona's historical sites include remains of early Indian cultures.

Among these are Canyon de Chelly, Casa Grande, Montezuma Castle, Navajo, and

Wupatki national monuments. "Dating from more recent times are Hubbell Trading

Post National Historic Site, near Ganado, a still-active post for trade with Indians; and

Mission San Xavier del Bac, established in 1700, in Tucson" (Durrenberger & Bowen

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Encarta). Three museums of special interest are the Navajo Tribal Museum, in Window

Rock; the Mohave Museum of History and Arts, in Kingman; and the Colorado River

Indian Tribes Museum, in Parker.

The museums and monuments contain only fragments of the numinous religion

that the Navajo have passed down through the generations. The "numinous" is more

than the sensation of awe and mystery in the presence of a strange world. There is no

clear boundary between the human mind and its environment. Inner and outer events

seem to happen without cause, bringing ecstasies as well as fears. Among the

Navajo, this captivating aspect of the numinous is called hozon, a term referring to a

sensation of intense beauty and peace that may be evoked by rituals of chanting,

dancing, and sand painting. Rituals of sympathetic magic, whether for evoking hozon,

rain, or fertile crops, have their origin in the same sense of oneness between the

human and the natural world and between the events of the mind and the events of

the outside world. Ritual plays a major part in Navajo culture. Ritual is "an attempt to

influence or harmonize oneself with the course of nature by dramatized or symbolic

enactment of such fundamental events as the daily rising and setting of the sun, the

alternation of the seasons, the changing phases of the moon, and the annual planting

and harvesting of crops" (Watts Encarta). In addition, ritual is the acting out of the

great mythical themes that take the place of religious doctrines. Ritual is an art form

that expresses and celebrates meaningful participation in the affairs of the universe

and the gods.

Much poetry may have its origins in the religious impulse. Navajo poetry has a

ritual purpose that is illustrated by this Navajo incantation for rain, translated by the

Irish-born American ethnologist Washington Matthews:

The corn grows up.
The waters of the dark clouds drop, drop.

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 The rain descends.
The waters form the corn leaves drop, drop.
The rain descends.
The waters form the plants drop, drop.
The corn grows up.
The waters of the dark mist drop, drop.

(Gall Encarta)

Among the Navajo and Hopi, the tribal myth says that creation is the result of a

progression upward from lower worlds, and the emergence from the last world is the

final progression into the world of humanity. It is more a story of emergence than a

story of creation. This is the fourth world, and when the people emerged here the sun,

moon, and stars first appeared in the sky. The day was divided from the night, and

the seasons came into being. This is also the time when the First Man and the First

Woman arrive at Dinnetah, near what is now called Huerfano Mountain in New Mexico.

"A baby is then born of mingling of darkness and dawn at Gobernador Knob, a

geologic formation in northeastern New Mexico" (Iverson 14). First Man and First

Woman find the baby when they hear it crying one morning at dawn. They raise the

child with help from sacred spirits known as Holy People. This child grows up to be

Changing Woman, a magical woman who appears now because the Navajo people are

ready for her. She is impregnated by the sun and bears two boy children named Child

Born of Water and Monster Slayer. She also creates the corn plant that the Navajo

people depend on for their lives.

The people name the four directions, the four winds, and the four mountains of

the world. They place the sun and moon in the sky. Everything seems good at first,

but then trouble comes. "Somehow, evil monsters had been born and they spread all

over the land killing the Earth People" (Underhill 17). The people need help, and they

get it from the twin sons of Changing Woman.

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 Changing Woman refuses to tell her children who their father is, so they find

Spider Woman under the ground and ask her. Spider Woman offers to help them find

their father. The boys are prepared for this difficult journey because they have grown

strong through proper living. However, they also need to learn special prayers from

Spider Woman, if they are to survive the ordeal. They must avoid four hazards to

reach the dwelling place of the Sun. After many adventures, they finally arrive, but

the Sun denies that they are his children. He does not want his wife to know that he

was with another woman. He says that they can prove they are his sons by going

through a series of tests. They manage to survive the physical dangers of those tests,

so the Sun accepts them and offers them many gifts form the four rooms of his house.

However, the boys only want him to help them kill the monsters that are plaguing the

people on earth. Their father gives them each a special kind of "lightning to destroy

their enemies and flint armor to wear for protection" (Iverson 17). The Navajos have

many stories about the adventures of the twin sons of Changing Woman and the Sun.

they also have many stories about the first clans and the first hogan.

The legend of First Man, First Woman, and Changing Woman is one of many

stories about the origin of the Navajo people. However, it is the most beautiful, and it

reveals the relation of myth and religion to the tribal history of the people.

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 WORKS CITED

"Canyon de Chelly National Monument," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993

Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.

Durrenberger, R. W., and Marshall E. Bowen, "Arizona," Microsoft (R) Encarta.

Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's

Corporation

Gall, Sally Moore, "Poetry," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft

Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.

Iverson, Peter. The Navajos. Indians of North America Series, General Editor Frank W.

Porter II, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990.

"Navajo Indians," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft Corporation.

Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.

"Navajo National Monument," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft

Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.

Stewart, Omer C., "Peyotism," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft

Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.

Sundberg, Lawrence D. Dinetah: An early history of the Navajo people. Santa Fe,

NM: Sunstone Press, 1995.

Underhill, Ruth. Here come the Navajo! Bureau of Indian Affairs, Tucson, AZ:

Treasure Chest Publications, Inc., 1953.

Watts, Alan Wilson, "Religion," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft

Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.