|
The
word Navajo comes from the phrase Tewa Navahu, meaning highly cultivated
lands. The Navajo Indians largely resides in New Mexico and Arizona.
The Navajo Indians originally began their tribes in the 1500s.
They traded maize (or corn crops) and woven cotton items such as blankets
for things like bison meat and various materials that they could use
to make tools and weapons.
The Navajo Indians are considered to be the largest tribe of all Native
American Indians. Their homes were very simple, just a small shelter
of wooden sticks, mud, and tree bark. These homes were known as hogans,
and their doors faced the east to be sure the sun would shine in. When
the Spanish came into their territory in the 1600s, the Navajo
who use their sheep for things like clothing and food. They would set
up trading posts within the Spanish towns with their handmade items
in order to barter for things that they needed.
Eventually,
both the Spaniards and the Mexicans began to take violent action against
the Navajo tribes because of their raids on the camps. They sent in
military installations to intimidate the tribes, and eventually about
2/3 of them surrendered to their wishes and moved to new territories,
including Utah. For those who refused to surrender, they hid out in
the mountains and the canyons to avoid being caught. Eventually the
Navajo Indians settled into a reservation on Fort Sumter in the late
1800s. By this point, they had begun raising sheep, giving them
a prosperous and profitable edge. Today the Navajo population is still
going strong. While young people in the tribes today search for their
own identities, they still remain very close to their families and to
their heritage. The Navajo tribes are some of the most influential of
all Native Americans, and their history and traditions have been passed
down over many generations.

|
IndianVillage.com
Address: 17897 Hwy 160
Durango, CO 81301
Contact Dillon Hartman
at:
E-mail: durangodillon@gmail.com
|
|