Navajo Tribe Tradition

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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, …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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