Navajo Tribe Rituals

Introduction

The healing rituals in the Navajo tribes included the spiritual healing ritual, which is a type of medicine or cure that is believed to be assisted by the spirits (Vogel 338). The Native Americans believed so much in these rituals, especially the Navajo tribe was the community that had strong beliefs in the capacity of this spiritual ritual healing. These healing rituals were influenced by the medium, which was the medicine, operated by Shaman who would perform these rituals and will be able to heal a sick person. This paper will focus mainly on the beliefs, ceremonies and ritual events that were believed by the Navajo people to treat their patients. It also argues ways and methods the Navajo used for their ritual rites. The Navajo

believed in the rituals as the source of their healings thus protecting these customs.
Methodology
This paper will use secondary sources to acquire the information and data. These secondary sources are obtained from book and journals. These sources have benefited since they are readily available and they provide all the information on the historical background to the recent trends of the Navajo community.
Navajo Ritual healing ceremony
The Navajo community incorporated religious medical activities in their lifestyles. Their healing practices began with the extraordinary belief that given rule must be harmonized in life. The healing practices and the knowledge of the community were connected to the Dine origin of the story, and the resulting practices stem from the original story. The healing rituals that the Navajo used were the purification ceremony. This healing process was practiced by medicine men, hand tremblers, singers and herbalists who were commonly known as the Hata ATi. These people were different from ordinary people in that they did not get their power from visions. A ceremony which was conducted by a famous medicine man within the tribe of Navajo, the medicine man assumed to be working closely with the spirits of the spirit land, and during this process, he was able to connect the sick person and the spirits.
The healers in the Navajo community ensured that they had stated the truth and they mostly focused on preventing the disease than curing. The hand tremblers played significance roles in diagnosing sick people through a sequence of activities and variations in their services. They used signs and reaction over a series of response when diagnosing their patients.
The place this ritual ceremony being performed was called the sweat lodge. It was made of branches from certain tree species according to different religions of this society. It also required the blankets or any other covering material to cover the patient and holds the heat. Before the ceremony, the sick person or anybody who was close and caring for this sick person fast took a tobacco plant to the medicine man(Heart, et al. 121). This tobacco plant had a meaning in that it was a tool that was believed to represent the ill person with its spirits. Also, it takes to be away a sick person asks the medicine man to act in the spirit world and serve them.
After offering this plant to the medicine man, the sick person then describes the problem; he will then give out the requirements and places where the ceremony will be held and how it should look like.

If there were other sick people around the place the service has been set, they were also allowed to attend and describe their problems too, so that they could also be attended to (Vogel 338). During this event, the affected person would be required to prepare food for the team belonging to the medicine man and to those that would attend. The most food that was being proposed and used mostly during such ceremonies was the buffalo soup, which was believed to an offering to the spirits. The man would also order a different color of small pieces of cloth; this piece was a representative of the spirits in the spiritual world whom will communicate their effective actions of the diseases of the patients through these colors. The number of these pieces was ranging from 50 to 70 in numbers (Vogel 338). The sick person would then be required to prepare a small bag using the tobacco plant. The sick person will then pray before tying these bags with the pieces of cloth; this was to signify what the ill need from the spirits and mostly about their illness. After this, the man then sits on the prepared altar, takes a pipe, and sends some smokes to the air. This was to enable the spirits to start working on the prayers and within a few days the sick person gets well. After this process, the

patients are then given some herbs to be used.
The herbalists administered herbal remedies and offered relief temporally to those awaiting ritual treatments, they similarly practiced home medication and cultured the usage of herbs skeletons and how to cleanse bodies by use of secretion baths and the maintenance for the direct requirements sick (Vogel 338).

The herbals included tree parts that were the leaves, backs, fruits and the roots. A sick person would visit a traditional herbalist who was well known in the Navajo community. The patients will be required to describe how they feel and place the regions in the body that have been affected. The medicine man would then order some requirements for the treatment, which were mostly an animal. This animal will then be slaughtered, and this will act as offerings to the spirits, which will then show the herbalist the kinds of tree species he would pick to cure this sick person (Vogel 338). This process was adamant and would enable this herbalist to be able to communicate with the spirits and provide proper medicine that would change the feeling of the sick. During this time, the gardener man would always conduct prayers to the spirits to be able to make his herbal choice to provide healing to the patient (Cross 10). Although the healers helped people who were suffering, some people used the ceremonies improperly to harm and was known as witchcraft. The Navajo people were alerted about these types of individuals, and they are the reasons why the Navajo people did not reveal

this ceremony to outsiders.
The medicine man was capable of treating different diseases, including those of spiritual effects, mental and the physical problems (Cross 10). These herbs were being given to the sick person and followed with other spiritual ways that make the patient cure well and prevent such disease from coming back and to get out of the society. This ceremony was a form of ritual that was sharply observed by the Navajo by believing that this could be a healing to the diseases that were chronic. The peyote worship was a process that was accompanied by the eating and drinking of the drinks and fruits prepared from the peyote plants and the cactus. This ritual worship was conducted mainly for healing purposes to the society and the sick people. Apart from this reason, it had also a purpose of signifying baptism and other events in the Navajo community (Cross 11). The rites of this worship were mainly conducted by men and usually take place from evening until morning hours.
The ceremony was accompanied by fire to act as a cleansing tool and bird’s feathers mostly from the birds that feed on flesh (Bernstein 130). These kinds of birds being believed by the Navajo community to be strong, and thus the use of their feathers during this event will make the worshipers of this ritual process protected and feel safe throughout the process. The head of such worship called a roadman who would provide these drinks and fruits to the worshippers, drinks and fruits were taken so that these people would be able to drive away some standard and other illnesses in the society, thus making the society to be free from any ill (Bernstein 131). The Navajo community still observes this kind of worships, and they help them combat illness out of their communities. If the disease persists after the ceremony, a spiritual walk, which was being performed by the Navajo and other Native Americans Indians, was conducted (Bernstein, 133). During the process, the spirit was being guided to provide good health and to guide them throughout their life. This ritual walk was also carried out to send some souls into the spirit world and be able to get guidance from the lost soul thus making the person be refreshed and be healed in the process. It was performed when a sick person has a chronic disease that has to resist other ritual rites of the society (Bernstein 136). Prayers, the Navajo community, accompanied this process and people were conducting this ceremony would be needed to perform a prayer and be isolated. Everyone in the community was praying at different places.
Apart from praying, they were also required to fast for the whole days the process will take to be able to get maximum attentions with their spirits thus making their requests satisfied. This prayer was mostly conducted due to the outbreak of certain diseases that could have to invade the society thus the prayers serve as a healing thing to be requested from the spirits. Other ceremonies that were important included night way rituals that were used to initiate Navajo into adulthood and the blessing way rite which identified the origin of the story.
In conclusion, these rituals were of importance to the Navajo people since they help them be healed. Up to date, there are still some rituals being performed by different communities for the purpose of healings. Research is needed to provide the future of these rituals if with the changes in the societies like education and technology would erase this ritual or they will advance them too.