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

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

Navajo and Their Neighbors

For this particular culture it's a little different on how they fit in opposed to a culture in other countries. The Navajo live in their own reservation located in the United States. Being that their people and culture has stayed intact for thousands of years, and still continues to thrive, it shows the longevity of the culture. Many Navajo people stick to their roots and live a more traditional Navajo lifestyle (sheepherding, hunting, living in hogans, etc.), while some born in the latest generations become more Americanized, in the sense they go into a lucrative career, or move out of the reservation. This culture has been around for so long they are typically respected by surrounding groups or cultures. The Navajo Reservation is protected by the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency. This agency makes it a priority to preserve the reservation and allow the Navajo people to continue to live their traditional lifestyle the culture chooses to live.
As far as groups that are closely related to the Navajo, we can talk about the Apache. Their language comes from the same language family called Athabaskan. Both cultures migrated south and brought their language, as well as their nomadic lifestyle with them.
Navajo and Their Neighbors

Birds of the Navajo Culture

Some of the most prevalent birds in the Navajo culture are the Barn Owl, Canada Goose, Gambel's Quail, Golden Eagle, Great-horned Owl, Red-tail Hawk, Sandhill Crane, Scaled Quail, Swainson Hawk, and Wild Turkey. The most important bird to them is the Golden Eagle, which they deem a sacred bird. Golden Eagle is pronounced Atsashzhiin in their language. It is a widespread year-round resident of the Navajo Nation. Its very sacred and important in the Navajo culture. They say a Navajo member can keep a Golden Eagle feather only if a medicine man properly blesses it first. The Navajo Zoo has four Golden Eagles on permanent exhibit. Three of them are male and one is female. The reasons for keeping them in captivity is because each of them had a serious wing injury causing them to have one wing amputated.
Birds of the Navajo Culture

Navajo Cosmos

The Navajo have a unique beliefs about the world. They believe the world they live in is referred to as the Fourth World, or Glittering World, after passing through the first three worlds. They say that there are two types of people, Holy People and Earth People. Holy People have powers to heal or harm Earth People. The Navajo Earth People are important and responsible for maintaining harmony and balance in nature. Its believed that hundreds of years ago the Holy People taught the Dine how to live the right way. They were taught to live in harmony with Mother Earth, Father Sky, and other elements such as man, animals, insects, and plants. The Holy People are responsible for creating the Navajo land where it is. This being by placing four sacred mountains in different directions, Mt. Blanca to the east, Mt. Taylor to the south, San Francisco Peak to the west, and Mt Hesperus to the north. They are also represented by colors. White Shell is east, Turquoise to the south, Yellow Abalone to the west, and Jet Black to the north. Four is a sacred number to them, it represents the seasons, the directions, the first four clans, the colors, and during rituals, they have four songs. If an illness or injury occurs, they will either go to the hospital in the Navajo Reservation, or seek out a medicine man. They use songs, herbs, prayers, and ceremonies to help cure the patient. The more traditional Navajo people tend to call upon medicine men while some still prefer the hospital.
Navajo Cosmos