Navajo Tribe

The Navajo tribe was located in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Dineh is what they called themselves. It means “the people”. People think the Navajos settled into the Southwest between 1300 and 1600. Navajos painted pictures on canyon walls such as: corn, deer, and antelope. They also painted the first white men they saw. The Navajos had moved to the mountains and valleys of Canyon de Chelly by 1750. There they hunted deer, mountain sheep, antelope, and rabbits. They ate the meat and used the skins for clothing. They did not waste anything. They planted and grew the three sisters (corn, beans, and squash). They grew their crops in a field the Spanish called Nabaju, which means “great planted fields”. Gradually, Nabaju became Navajo (pronounced, Navaho). The Navajos lived in Hogan, made of logs and mud. They held ceremonies to keep away the bad spirits. The boys and the girls both knew how to tend the sheep and were expected to. When a girl got married she would receive some sheep to keep. The boys would also get some sheep. The bride’s family built their new Hogan near her mother’s Hogan.