Tuesday, May 6, 2014

References

Book Sources:
The Navajo by Clyde Kluckhohn and Dorothea Leighton
The Navajo by James F. Downs
Navajo Neighbors by Franc Johnson Newcomb

Internet Sources:
http://www.ihs.gov/navajo/index.cfm?module=nao_navajo_nation
http://www.navajozoo.org/Animals_Eagle.htm
http://www.agriculture.navajo-nsn.gov/

Journals:
American Communication Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2009; Matt Nelson

Navajo Cultural Survival

Every culture must face some type of threat or obstacle they have to with stand to stay afloat and continue their traditional style of living. A few obstacles for the Navajo are globalization, weather, and unemployment.
  With the world constantly changing and becoming more advanced through technology and the infrastructure, its harder for some cultures to keep their lifestyle in tact, especially in America. Its harder for some Navajo to stick to the same lifestyle while still getting by making a decent living.
  The weather is something that has always affected the Navajo because of where they live. The Navajo Reservation is located in the Great American Desert and with such little rainfall there it is something that has always affected them. Its extremely hard for them to have a thriving agricultural life in such a barren region. This makes it difficult to have crops to grow and harvest, although they do grow crops, its just hard to have an abundance.
  For the Navajo, they are very limited in employment opportunities. Some of their main resources are livestock and agricultural. But with unemployment rates reaching 48% and an average household income of about $8,000, its forcing them to do something about their lifestyle. They need to have some type of agricultural programs, policies, and conservation program to revitalize the rural economy. This is one of the main factors for driving the Navajo out of the traditional style of living. Its extremely hard for them to have lucrative job opportunities while still maintaining their style of living. This is causing them to have some cultural reconstruction.
Navajo Cultural Survival

Monday, May 5, 2014

Navajo Games

Games are a big part of the Navajo culture especially for the younger crowd. Most of them were developed by the love of the land. The origin of these games come from mostly in the winter when their reservation was secluded, mainly for entertainment.
  The two popular games they would play are the String game and Shoe game. The String game is simply a game where children would make figures out of string, such as animals or objects. There is roughly 70 shapes they could make from the string.
  The Shoe game is where they would hide a box of sand with their tops sticking out. Its a team-oriented game where they place a yucca in one of the boxes and they guess which box has the yucca ball. They have to guess correctly to have the chance to hide the ball next. If guessed correctly, they have branches as points. Which ever team has more branches wins the game.
Navajo Games
 

Music of the Navajo

Music is a very important part of Navajo culture. Music is used mainly for ceremonies and also entertainment. They have a very diverse range of genres including rock, rap, and country style music. They perform in both English and Navajo. The instruments used are drums, rattles, flutes, and whistles. The medicine people are qualified to perform the music at any one of the many ceremonies and rituals.
   Some songs performed can last up to ten days while performing rituals that restore balance between good and evil. . A very popular form of healing are sandpaintings which is calling the gods to heal people through songs. Its said that they could restore a person to good health.
   Peytone songs are a type of Native American music which became popular in the Navajo culture in the 1930s. They say its a combinations of Apache and Pueblo music, later adopted by the Navajo.
   In modern day Navajo culture, they have become a lot more diverse in the music they perform. It has spread to different genres such as hardcore, punk, metal, blues, hip-hop, country, and traditional. There have been plenty of successful bands to come out of the Navajo culture such as Blackfire, Downplay, Mother Earth Blues Band, Aces Wild, Tribal Live, and other musicians. The recent success of these band have given the younger generations and new interest in their cultural music.
Music of the Navajo