The Navajo tribe is the second most populous of all Native American tribes in the U.S. In the early twenty-first century, there were approximately 300,000 Navajo people mostly living in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. However, ages ago, they were a semi-nomadic nation, also known as the Diné tribe. They used to occupy the southwest desert regions of the same areas as now and did not welcome the British people, trying to resist the invasion of their homelands. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this tribe in detail, including their houses, food, and clothes.
If it were possible to visit a camp of Navajo tribe, a person would see Earthen houses known as pit houses, earth lodges, and Hogans. These impressive houses were “semi-subterranean dwellings that were dug from the earth” and “built using the timber from pinon trees, that were covered with reeds” (Siteseen Limited). The Navajo women would likely be somewhere close to their Hogans, taking care of children, land, domestic animals, and other household chores. At the same time, most men were usually out of the camp, protecting it or hunting for food. The Navajo used to keep goats and sheep, and the women wove and spun their wool into clothes and blankets. If the visitor could stay for dinner, the Navajo would treat him or her with fish, rabbit, other small game, or deer. In addition to meat, people of Navajo would have sunflower seeds, squash, beans, fruit, corn, berries, and nuts. To get meat or protect the camp, men used weapons like knives, stone ball clubs, and bows and arrows.
As for the clothes that the Navajo men and women wear, a modern person would probably consider it normal or even fashionable. Garments were produced of wool or animal skin, and yucca fiber was also used to make mats, baskets, cloth, belts, and sandals. Men’s clothing included breechcloths, tunics with a concho belt, ponchos and cloaks during the cold weather, a leather cap, and high moccasins with two or three silver buttons. The women of the tribe liked silver and turquoise ornaments, kept their hair long, and “worn in a traditional hair knot called a Tsiiyeel which was wrapped in white yarn” (Siteseen Limited). They were dressed in skirts, blouses, and cloaks when it was cold.
Work Cited
Siteseen Limited. “Navajo Tribe.” WarPaths2PeacePipes. 2018, Web.