Navajo Tribe Tradition

The Survival of Spiritual Tribal Traditions of the Navajo Tribe

Introduction:

This paper aims at reviewing available historical sources on spiritual tribal traditions among the descendants of the Navajo tribe and the role they still play in contemporary times. The "Navajo Nation", constitutes the second largest tribe of Native Americans in North America. The tribe lives in the southwestern United States (Monsen 2008). More than 200,000 Navajos live on the 24,000 square miles of the Navajo Nation (Birchfield 2000). The Navajos' call themselves “Diné”, which means "the people." In 1969 the Navajo Tribal Council officially designated the nation the "Navajo Nation." (Birchfield 2000). Linguistically, they belong to the Athapaskan language family,

which is considered as one of the most widely dispersed language families in North America, and most of its members still reside in the far north in Alaska and Canada (Birchfield 2000).
The Navajos’ life is based on rich oral cultural traditions. Customs are passed down through generations for hundreds of years. These customs emphasize spiritual beliefs of the tribe. They are known collectively as the "Navajo Way”. The Navajos’ spiritual beliefs value the importance of preserving and restoring balance and harmony with nature (Monsen 2008). In the following part I will review anthropological sources that provide evidence of the strength and durability of these beliefs.

The Navajos’ Spiritual Traditions and Beliefs:

Many ethnographical and anthropological sources underline the resilience and survivability of the Navajo spiritual beliefs. As an example Birchfield (2000) maintains that “in 1941 an anthropologist interviewed an entire community of several hundred Navajos and could not find even one adult over the age of 35 who had not received traditional medical care from a "singer," a Navajo medicine man called “Hataali”, or singer. This clearly shows the strength of these traditions and the degree to which contemporary Navajos adhere to them. According to the same source all of the 3,600 Navajos who served in World War II underwent the cleansing of the Enemyway ceremony upon their return from the war.

Monsen (2008) argues that the Navajo spiritual rituals are intended to restore balance and harmony to the veterans returning from the war.

According to this ritual, traumatized veterans watch a Navajo healer fanning a fire in his tent. The Navajos believe that this can heal soldiers. There are 24 chantway ceremonies performed by singers. Some last up to nine days and require the assistance of dozens of helpers, especially dancers. Twelve hundred different sandpainting designs are available to the medicine men for the chantways (Birchfield 2000). In addition to healing soldiers, these same rituals are performed to improve the physical and mental health of sick people, as well as to celebrate milestones in a person’s life (Monsen

2008).

Some authors assert that the Navajo healing practices invoke elements of the synthetic principle Sa'ah Naaghai Bik'eh Hozho (SNBH) (Lewton and Bydone 2000). This principle specifies that “the conditions for health and well-being are harmony within the physical/spiritual world. People's relationships with and within a meaningful behavioral environment-to other people, to cultural traditions, to spiritual beings-are integral to their self-orientations and thus to their identities as Navajos. The disruption and restoration of these relationships constitute an important affective dimension in Navajo distress and healing.” (Lewton and Bydone 2000). These authors argue that all Navajo healing traditions are based on elements of the SNBH. Each tradition teaches adherents about the importance of maintaining proper family relationships and of one's cultural/spiritual history. They also involve affective engagement with other people and with the spiritual world through emotional expression and/or the use of kinship terms (Lewton and Bydone 2000).
In contrast to modern curative medicine, the traditional Navajo medical practice treats the whole person, not just the illness, and is not conducted in isolation but in a ceremony that includes the patient's relatives. The ceremony can last from three to nine days depending upon the illness being treated and the ceremony to be performed (Birchfield 2000).

In addition to these healing cermonies performed by the “Hataali”, there are other healing traditions which involve sand paintings in a cleansing and healing ceremony aimed at restoring pproper order to the disharmony in the universe which is believed to be the root cause of the illness. (Birchfield 2000). There are approximately 1,200 designs that can be used; most can be created within the size of the average hogan floor, about six feet by six feet, though some are as large as 12 feet in diameter and some as small as one foot in diameter (Birchfield 2000). These paintings consist of complex patterns. Singers and dancers also assist in creating them. Detailed description of these painting cermonies is given by Birchfield (2000). When the painting is ready the patient sits in the middle of it. The singer then transforms the orderliness of the painting, symbolic of its cleanliness, goodness, and harmony, into the patient and puts the illness from the patient into the painting. The sand painting is then discarded. Many years of apprenticeship are required to learn the designs of the sand paintings and the songs that accompany them, skills that have been passed down through many generations. Most Hataaliare able to perform only a few of the many ceremonies practiced by the Navajos, because each ceremony takes so long to learn. Sand painting is now also done for commercial purposes at public displays, but the paintings are not the same ones used in the healing rituals.

Despite the apparent strength of these traditions, the numbers of trained Navajo medicine men and women have been declining.

According to Monsen (2008) the Navajo Reservation occupying the northeastern Arizona, the southeast portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico, has a population of about 300,000, and only a handful of its residents have been trained as medicine men or medicine women. This fact shows the importance of integrating traditional healing practices into modern health care. This has already been practiced in some areas through including a room for the traditional Navajo healing practices in newly built health facilities (Birchfield 2000).

Bibliography

Birchfield, D. L. (2000). "Navajos.". Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, http://www.encyclopedia.com.

Lewton, E. L. and V. Bydone (2000). "Identity and healing in three Navajo religious traditions: Sa'ah Naaghai Bik'eh Hozho." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 14(4): 476-497.

Monsen, L. (2008). "Navajo Healers, Sand Paintings Keep Tribal Traditions Alive." from

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2008/09/20080919122009glnesnom0.2215998.html#axzz46rg6Kecn.