Subsistence

The Navajos or Diné mainly eat corn. The corn is prepared in different forms. They boil it, fry it, turn it into corn meal, or tortillas. They also eat wild plants such as greens from beeweed, seeds from the hedge mustard, pig weed, and mountain grass. They also eat tubers of wild onion, prickly pear, grapes, currants, chokecherries, sumac, rose, raspberries, acorns,and walnuts. 

One important food is the pinyon nut which is their major source of income. They gather these seeds around June and July while men hoe gardens. Another food source that is part of their diet are small wild potatoes no bigger than a hickory nut,  and yucca. The wild potatoes are served as fresh vegetables and because of their bitter taste they add clay seasoning. The yucca's are mad into cake and the next day are mixed in with water to make syrups. 

Some meals they usually prepared were mutton with sumac berry soup, and goat meat with corn meal. They liked goat because the meat was tough and it "seems like you're getting more to eat if it's tough"

woman grinding sumac berries for sumac berry soup

Some food items that the Navajo tribe started to incorporate in their diet after the Europeans came were mutton, fried bread, and coffee with goat milk and sugar. They also made coffee bean porridge. They disliked pork because at first they did not know how to cook it hence making them sick. They also didn't like dairy European dairy products. 

Navajo Food
2013 Navajo People - The Diné
http://navajopeople.org/navajo-food.htm accessed April 15, 2014

The Diné and their beliefs

The Diné, or the Navajo Earth people, believe in the existence of two types of people- the Holy people and the Earth people. The Holy people, analogous to what we refer to as “god” or “gods”, are believed to be powerful. The Earth people are kind of seen as responsible for the Earth and sustaining its peace and balance. The number four and harmony with the elements are a very important part of the Navajo beliefs. For example, four seasons, four directions, four sacred mountains, etc. The Earth people were also taught by the Holy people to always maintain harmony and balance with the elements such as Mother Earth or Father Sky. The Diné also perform over fifty ceremonies for many different purposes.

Navajo Cultural History and Legends
2002 Navajo Beliefs. Electronic document,
http://www.navajovalues.com/natani/navajovalues.htm
accessed April 14, 2014

Language

Yá'át'ééh!
Welcome!



The name "Navajo" comes from the late 18th century from the Spanish (Apaches de) Navajo "(Apaches of) Navajo," which came from the Tewa navahu meaning, fields adjoining a ravine." The Navajo call themselves the Dine', which means "The people." Most Navajo speak English as well as their language, Diné bizaad (meaning People's Language). The Navajo language has between 120,000 and 170,700 speakers, more than any other Native American language in the country. A factor that separates them and suggests their affinity to east Asia languages is that they are tonal. When they speak words with different tones, even with the same phonemes, they have different meanings. This difference makes learning the language for outsiders extremely different.

The Navajo language is famous for it's influence on World War II. At first, the Navajo started working with the army, but their efforts weren't completely utilized until they started working with the marines. The Indian recruits were given basic training and training in advanced infantry before given their task. They had to create a code to transfer military terms and phrases into the Navajo language. They made them as straightforward as possible so they could prove useful under combat conditions that required rapid receiving and translating. Words that with directly associated with nature or their common life were picked for simplicity. Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line English message in 20 seconds. Machines from that time took 30 minutes to do the same job. In all, about 400 Navajo people were trained as code talkers. The Navajo's codes proved vital to our success in winning the war. The Japanese never once broke their code.

 

Navajo People

2011[1994] Navajo Language. Electronic document, http://navajopeople.org/navajo-language.htm, accessed March 23, 2014.

 

Navajo Nation Department of Information Technology

2011 Navajo Nation. Electronic document, http://www.navajo-nsn.gov, accessed February 21, 2014.