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Born for the Many Goats Clan and to her maternal Arrow People Clan, Peggy Rock Black learned to weave from her mother, grandmother, and sister. As well as the weaving technique, Peggy knows the natural plant dyes and occasionally uses them when coloring the sumac strips she uses in her baskets. Now she is passing the difficult but rewarding lessons of the art along to her three daughters.
With great support from her family, Peggy is a prolific weaver. Her husband, Eddie, assists in gathering the sumac and preparing it for weaving. Eddie helps her in other ways, too. He is a herbalist and is studying with his uncle and grandfather, both medicine men, so that he may too be a medicine man. This is important to Peggy, who believes in the healing power of the sumac.
The sumac bush, which grows about 3 feet tall, is sometimes called the lemonade tree because of the tart drink that can be made from its unripe summer berries. The bark, leaves, and berries of the sumac have all been used by Native American people for medicinal purposes.
Peggy respects the traditions of her Navajo heritage. She weaves contemporary baskets but leans toward traditional Navajo designs of balance.
l'm really careful with what I weave," she says. She keeps to the positive stories of her people and uses the power of healing ceremonies to protect her from life's evils. Though she lives in a house, she often weaves her baskets in a traditional hogan close by.
Peggy has won many awards at shows at The Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, and at the Gallup Ceremonials in New Mexico, but she does not think of herself as a competitive person. "I only want to try different designs," she explains. And then, in a sentence that sums up Peggy's personality as well as the reason her baskets are so dynamic, she adds, "I want to experience the designs."
Looking at her baskets it is clear that each have her positive, healing influence. They are baskets that the observer can experience also.
The Holy
Beings formed the dog, male and female. The male dog was dressed with the dawn
and he was white. He traveled to the East. The female dog was reddish or brownish
yellow and she was dressed with the twilight. On their ears sat the Little Breeze.
Their ears were made from the winds, and at the tip of the tail also there is
a breeze. So when a dog passes another dog he can tell from the mouth to the
tip of the tail. Burned food was put on their noses and they were black. A medicine
stick, ke et an'dotishe, was placed inside their stomachs, and they say that
is why a dog never gets enough to fill him. As he has the wind at the ears and
at the tip of the tail he never gets lost. He knows many things, for he was
sent to guard the doorways of the people. The male dog was sent east of the
Carrizos and the female dog to a place now known as Tohatchi. The white dog
was a welcome animal. The people were good hunters and they fed him and petted
him and he grew fat. But the female dog went to evil people who beat her and
threw sticks at her and she grew poor and skinny. The dogs were told to meet
at a place called Tse ha gaye. There are burning minerals under the ground there
and one sees smoke. 12 They met there as instructed, but when they met the male
jumped on the female and threw her on the ground. The male dog treated her badly.
They fought as dogs do now. Then they crossed. The dog said: "People were
good to me and fed me lots of meat." The bitch said: "People were
cruel to me. They starved me all the time." So they changed places; the
white dog went to the home of the yellow dog, and the female went to the home
of the male. And after a time they met again at the same place. This time the
white dog had gotten the worst of the treatment and was thin and poor, whereas
the bitch was fat. So the two got even with each other. Then the two dogs started
out for a place called Nat ege saka'te, where a lone currant bush grows on a
plain south of Fruitland. A little ledge of rock and the lone currant bush are
all that are there. When the dogs reached the ledge of rock they sat side by
side with their backs toward the people who had been cruel to them. The one
dog sent his bad wish with the gas from his stomach, and the other dog sent
her bad wish from her backbone to the wicked people. The two them returned to
the place where they were made. Later, the people who had been cruel to the
dogs sickened. Their stomachs bloated, and they were very ill indeed. The being
who was called Dontso, the All-Wise Fly, came and said: "The only person
to make medicine here is Hasjelti himself; but don't tell anyone what I have
said. Keep it a secret." Now up to this time they had used ceremonies over
the sick, but they could not cure them. When Hasjelti made the medicine the
people recovered. This is where the Dog Ceremony 13 begins. The chant is here.
12- Informant's note: This is a place near Newcomb's Trading Post.
13- Informant's note: The medicine used in the Dog Ceremony is for stomach ailments.
They are: Informant's name: tse gan il chee; Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 187),
tsigha'jilchi, the dodder, Cuscuta unbellata. Informant's name: chil'dily ese;
Franciscan Fathers (1910, p.186), chil dilyisi, dodgeweed, Gutierezzia euthamiae.
Informant's name: da'e tinda; Franciscan Fathers (1912, p.77), da'hiqi'hi da',
hummingbird food, Scarlet Gilia, Gilia aggregata. These plants are boiled together
with native salts.
The dog (lechai), Khintqelgi dobidinshdidahi hashcheltqi bili dzilkae nat'ani, that fine young chief of the wide house, the inseparable companion and pet of the Talking God. Pg. 175
Dog (le'tca'i,
li'tca'i') (U) is an animal of bad luck that may spoil anything. The Navaho
ascribe to Dog the faults possessed by its relatives, Coyote and Wolf, and despise
him because 'he can't take care of himself.' The Mexican hairless seems to have
been better thought of. When Rainboy's sister prepared for her ascension, she
took with her a Mexican hairless dog.
A small watchdog, tied to a cliff opposite the canyon home of the gods, barked
sharply at the Stricken Twins.
Persons to whom dogs are unfriendly cannot foretell events. Those who divined
by listening put dog earwax, among other things, into their ears. A rite to
drive off the evil power of dogs was a part of the Night and Mountain chants
(Hill 1938, p. 75; 1935a, p. 66; Reichard 1944d, p. 155; Matthews 1902, pp.
103, 229; Newcomb 1938, p.47; Wyman-Kluckhohn, pp. 6, 27; Kluckhohn-Wyman, p.
188).
Horses are kept for breeding, riding, and driving purposes. They are rarely fed, being turned out at large after use. Even when at work little or no feed is provided, as the Navaho is indifferent to the needs of his horse. Yet they thrive where others of their kind might starve, and in addition give remarkable tests of endurance. Pg. 145
Horse racing with light betting is frequently indulged in. On festive occasions betting is very heavy, losses being sustained with as much indifference as gains are accepted with joy and laughter. The Navajo is as cheerful a loser as he is a winner, and often stakes his most treasured possessions on a single issue. A fleet horse is better cared for than the usual run of horses, and is often practiced and trained long before the race. Pg. 154
When the
Holy People first made the horse, it was a complete thing, but it would not
come to life. They tried to get it to rise up on its strong legs, but it would
not rise. Caterpillar was asked to help. "How can I help?" he asked.
"You know," one of the Holy People said, "where the sacred flints
are kept." "Yes, this is true. But I am slow getting around."
Then the Holy People prayed over Caterpillar and he became Butterfly. Swiftly
he flew to the Mountain Where Flint Is Kept, and gathering four flints, he returned
to the Holy People and put the flints into the hooves of the horse. The great
horse stirred, quivered, came to life. Then it surged, leaped into life, struck
the air with its hooves, and galloped off into the clouds. "Look,"
a Holy Person said,"the horse makes the marks of Butterfly when it dances
on its hooves." And it has been that way ever since. Pgs. 175, 176
Five Horses: The five horses of the Sun Father are a way of telling time, Navajo
style. White shell and pearl horses represent dawn, turquoise is noon, red shell
is sunset, and jet or coal is night.
The horses'
hoofs are hada huniye (agate), the banded male stone. The hair of the mane and
tail is called nltsa najin, little streaks of rain. The mane is called e alinth
chene. Horses' ears are the heat lightning, that which flashes in the night.
The big stars that sparkle are their eyes. The different growing plants are
their faces. The big bead, yo tso, is their lips. The white bead is the teeth.
Tliene delne' dil hilth, a black fluid, was put inside horses to make the whinny.
Pg. 13
Sandoval told Goddard that the horse's hoofs have stripes because they were
made of mirage (variegated stones) and because the rainbow went into the making
of its very gait. Its mane came from a small rain cloud, and its tail from black
rain, while its intestines came from water of all kinds. Some of nature's most
majestic forces and elements went into the composition of its head. Sandoval
related that "distant lightning composed its ears. A big spreading twinkling
star formed its eye and striped its face." The face itself was formed of
living plants, and the growing vegetation that made up its face illuminated
it at night. Large sacred beads composed its lips, and its teeth would not "wear
out quickly" because they were formed of the Navajo's treasured white shell.
Sandoval's mythical horse was indeed a forceful and beautiful creature when
it neighed, the sound really came from a black flute inside its mouth. Moreover,
Sandoval supplied Goddard with some additional information about the horse's
body, which is not included in the O'Bryan recording. It seems that red stone
was used to produce the horse's heart, sunrays its bridle, and that even the
dawn played a role in making up its belly, thus dividing it into two parts one
black and one white, which meant that it belonged to both day and night. Pg.
14
"Here they are, those with which in time to come (people) will live,"
he said .......... He opened a door toward the east, they say. The place was
so large that it extended as far as one could see .......... At the entrance,
white shell was prancing about, they say, white shell in the likeness of a horse
.......... Gracefully doing like this, lifting its foot continually, it was
prancing about, they say. All of different kinds, white shell horses extended
off in great numbers .......... A great amount of mist-like rain falling on
them continuously, they extended off in great numbers .......... Blue birds
fluttered over their heads, they say. The myth tells us that after showing Turquoise
Boy these holy white horses in the first enclosure, Mirage Man continued his
tour with a visit to another wing of the place, built just like the eastern
one, but facing the south this time. In this place, a great turquoise horse
tied with a handsome turquoise-blue rope was prancing about at the entrance,
and from him had sprung the many blue horses which stood behind as far as the
culture hero could see. The youth could also see that rainbows formed an arch
over the sky around the blue horses while blue swallows fluttered over them,
doubtless empowering the horses with the speed and endurance they contained
in their blue feathers. The birds also symbolized the happiness and the immortality
surrounding Sun's herd. Again, the horses were enveloped by a mist, which only
intensified their beauty. Now, there remained only two other enclosures a western
one and a northern one, and as before, Mirage Man showed the youth these places
too. Basically, they resembled the other two, except that the horses, roped,
and birds inside each one differed entirely in coloration. The western horses
and the things surrounding them were yellow, while the northern horses and the
things surrounding them were spotted. Pg. 21
The Navajo and Apache also have directional color associations for certain stones
and shells, which, because of the religious significance attached to them, play
important roles in their mythologies, ceremonies, customs, and beliefs. These
stones and shells are also commonly associated with the cardinal horses, as
the above myth illustrates in its references to the horses of white shell and
turquoise. A fine example of this association is supplied in some information
which the Navajo named Hatali Natloi gave Matthews. Hatali Natloi said that
the first white horse was made of white shell, the first iron-gray horse of
turquoise, the first black horse of cannel coal (jet), the first piebald horse
of haliotis shell, and the first red (sorrel) horse of red stone (carnelian).
Thus, horses, according to their colors, are called after the different substances
of which the Navajo believe the cardinal horses were made. For that reason,
the Navajo speak of turquoise or gray horses as dolizi lin, red stone or sorrel
horses as bastsili lin, cannel coal or black horses as baszini lin, and haliotis
or spotted horses as yolkai lin. Pg. 21
Navajo mythology expresses this same regard for the white horse and often describes
the sun and moon deities riding about on their elegant, milk-white steeds. In
the foregoing myth, it will be noted that the white horse occupies the east,
his most common cardinal position in Navajo mythology, for the Navajo frequently
associate white with the color of dawn or early morning light, which banishes
the shadows and mysteries of night. Because of this association, it is said
that a Navajo who owns a white horse feels himself fortunate and believes he
will have no bad luck when he rides it. Sun's dawn horse plays a prominent role
in a version of the myth concerning the Twin War Gods' visit to their father's
house, which Maud Oakes recorded from a famous Navajo scout and medicine man
named Jeff King. King told Oakes that at the beginning of time the Navajo's
first holy beings chose this white horse for the young sun deity to mount each
morning as he carried his burden of light into the sky. He told too of how the
Twins, at a much later time, saw this horse at the deity's home in the other
world and of how they met their previously unknown sister Sun's daughter who
helped their father catch his horse every day. "Each morning," she
would shake "a rattle to call the white horse for Sun to ride," he
explained. Implying a change of its color with a change of its cardinal position,
King also said that Sun's horse "moves around as it faces the four directions."
Pg. 22
Most versions of the Navajo myth concerning Sun's courtship of Changing Woman
( a goddess sometimes referred to as White Shell Woman ) say that when Sun first
appeared to woo her, he was dressed in white and chose to ride his splendid
white horse, which sported a bridle and a saddle of the same color. The deity's
choice of the white horse for this occasion signifies something else this time.
First of all, Sun and his horse are attired in white to complement the theme
of whiteness surrounding White Shell Woman. But more important is the purpose
of Sun's visit to the goddess, who was them but a girl out gathering seeds.
He wishes to instruct her as to how she might accomplish conception. The fact
that Sun insisted on white dress for both himself and his white steed at this
particular time "apparently differentiates," as Reichard says, "the
naturally sacred from the profane." Newcomb lends support to such an interpretation
by identifying white as "the color of purity and of the spirit" qualities
commonly associated with the goddess whom the Navajo picture as being almost
entirely above reproach. - Moon's horse is addressed third in a prayer to the
holy horses in the Navajo ceremony known as Flint Way; it is called "horse
of the moon, who puffs along the surface of the earth." Pg. 23
The Navajo, on the other hand, usually place their black horses at the north
rather than at the east. This northern cardinal horse represents the night sky
and is called Sun's "black jewel" horse in one Navajo myth .......
If a "horse has white stockings, he also sees by (means of) them."
Pg. 26, 27
Red Horse: Sometimes the Navajo use him as a substitute horse in their color
circuits and pair him with black to indicate such dangerous things as dark skies.
Accordingly, a Navajo tradition says that Sun mounts either his red horse or
his black horse "when the heavens are dark with storm." Pg. 27
The Cardinal Horse that Navajo mythology values most is the turquoise of blue
horse. Much of the association that the black cardinal horse has for the Apache,
the turquoise has for the Navajo; for this is the mythical horse the Navajo
think of as being Sun's favorite the one he rode all day. Undoubtedly, that
is why Mirage Man, as mentioned earlier in connection with the Navajo myth,
kept sun's turquoise horse behind the second door of the other world corral
the door which opened to the south. In the color circuit employed in this myth,
the blue to the south "signifies" to use Gladys Reichard's words "the
bright blue sky of day." Thus, it seems consistent to reason that the Navajo
would extend the association a step further and think of the sun as a deity
riding his blue horse across the sky all day. Pg. 27, 28
Two Navajo songs for good luck with horses picture for us their idea of the
mythical turquoise horse. One song says that as he moves along, he does not
raise dust; only glittering grains of mineral , of the sort the Navajo use in
religious ceremonies, fly behind his speedy hoofs. When he gallops, sacred pollen
surrounds him as dust would an ordinary horse. Through the pollen, he seems
enveloped by mist,........ The other song, which the elder of the Twins is said
to have sung for good luck in the Navajo version of the horse race around the
world, extols, in the youth's own words, the powers of the mighty blue stallion.
Here is the way part of it goes:
The turquoise horse prances with me.
From where we start the turquoise horse is seen.
The lightning flashes from the turquoise horse.
The turquoise horse is terrifying.
He stands on the upper circle of the rainbow.
The sunbeam is in his mouth for a bridle.
He circles around all the people of the earth
With their goods.
Today he is on my side
And I shall win with him.
Many intimate
glimpses of the sun with his favorite horse are given in Navajo mythology. First
of all, sun was ever mindful of the needs of his powerful turquoise stallion,
which was larger than an ordinary horse. 80 One of the deity's first remarks
after he had been created and put in the sky concerned the care of his majestic
blue horse. As he went on his initial trip across the heavens, Sun looked for
a nice place to pasture his mount at the noon hour. Approaching the center of
the sky, he discovered a likely spot and said: "The blue horse that I ride
will eat there."............ Apparently, though, the turquoise horse was
well pleased with the unusual kind of pasture Sun chose for him. The first of
the Navajo songs discussed above describes him "neighing joyously"
as he stands on precious hides of all kinds which are spread out across the
sky to symbolize clouds. There in that cloud pasture, he feeds on the tips of
lovely new flowers and drinks of four mingled waters from a stream which connects
with the four regions of the world.
80. Matthews, Navaho Legends, p. 233, n. 118. Another Navajo myth mentions Sun
showing the Twins a huge horse which he kept under "a trap door in the
center of the floor" of his house. Though the color of this horse was not
given, he was described as being "like a team horse with hoofs about a
foot in diameter." See Fishler, In the Beginning, p. 71. Pgs. 29, 30
The Navajo and all the Apache groups usually place the yellow mare at the western
cardinal station, since they commonly associate its coloration with the various
hues of yellow seen in a sunset or in early evening light. The "abalone
shell in the likeness of a horse," which the Navajo Mirage Man is said
to have kept behind the third door of the sun's corral, is the sacred shell
associated with this horse in myths and ceremonies by all the Southern Athapascan
people. Sometimes called ear shell, abalone is spiral shaped, lined with mother-of-pearl,
and perforated along its outer edges. The Navajo expression for abalone is "the-particular-one-that-is-iridescent,
the-one-whose-various-colors-scintillate." Oyster shell is also a common
substitute for this shell. The earthly models for this mythological horse are
a yellowish brown sorrel, a coyote dun, or a Palomino. Pg. 33
The last kind of horse found among the Navajo and Apache cardinal herds is the
horse of two colors the dappled, the spotted, or the pinto. Such animals frequently
appear at the north in color circuits of the ..... Navajo; The haliotis shell
of many-colored flecks, which resembles the abalone in texture, is often used
in myths and ceremonies to signify spotted horses. So is agate. Sometimes the
word "spotted" is substituted by the words "sparkling,"
"glittering," or "variegated" in Navajo and Apache myths
and tales about this horse. In ceremonies when such a color impression is intended,
either mixed jewels tiny fragments from all the sacred stones are used, or else
a type of stone called "mirage stone." Mirage stones are white, gray,
yellowish-striped stones, which are shiny when polished, causing a magnified
reflection of a number of colors. For instance, the Navajo refer to certain
types of quartz as "mirage rocks," and in one Navajo myth, some small
stone horse fetishes of different colors, called "Mirage Quartz Rock Horses,"
are shown the Twins by a supernatural being named Frog Man. Pg. 37
The Navajo Mirage Man, who was himself a combination of colors, expressed the
same sort of regard to Turquoise Boy when he was showing him around the sun's
corral. Implying the climactic nature of the fourth time, the Navajo myth states
that the old man showed Turquoise Boy the horses he valued most when he opened
the last door of the corral the door which led to the "spotted horses"
with "the white eyelashes." In a similar way, Frog Man, who in another
Navajo Myth was acknowledged by Sun as knowing as much about the breeding of
fine horses as anyone in the gods' world, treasured the "Mirage Quartz
Rock Horses" he kept in a ceremonial basket. It was said that Frog Man
"raised all kinds and colors of horses, sheep and goats," and that
he, like the sun's corral-keeper in the other myth, was formed also from a mirage
substance quartz rock, in this case. However, Navajo traditions say that their
horse-loving sun deity prized his paints, his dappled and his spotted horses
too so much, in fact, that he kept an entire cardinal herd of them. Those who
saw these beautiful horses must have had a rich experience, for one glimpse
at them in a Navajo myth is enough to convince us that they combined all the
colors Sun most enjoyed on the may good horses he rode in each of the quadrants.
According to the myth, "to the east were ones with white bodies with all
kinds of blue designs and spots. To the south was a blue one with white spots
and all kinds of designs. There were also horses with white finger marks with
a blue background. To the west was a yellow one with black and white spots,
while to the north was a black one with a yellow-reddish nose and white spots
all over it." Pg. 38
Fortunately, the things the goddess needed to create the first horses for mankind
were already at the new residence. Inside this palatial hogan were four horses
made of jewel substances, belonging to each of the directions, and in the center
of these stood a stately jet horse "at the root of a perfect cornstalk
. . . . . . On the cornstalk's top sat a black songbird." Like everything
else in her western home, the goddess's cornstalk was modeled after the one
Sun kept at his eastern home. A better idea of what it looked like and what
purpose it served can be had by examining the one belonging to Sun. According
to a description Goldtooth supplied Fishler, Sun's cornstalk grew in the center
of a basket which he kept on a shelf in the center of his house. Inside the
basket were also some pieces of turquoise, all types and colors of corn, and
four horse fetishes facing the cardinal directions and surrounding the cornstalk,
on which hung two ears of corn, most probably representing the male and female
sexes, since this is what they ordinarily symbolize in Navajo myths. The sacred
stone and shell horse fetishes "ate the corn pollen that fell from the
corn tassels," Goldtooth said. They were tied to four posts which also
stood inside the basket, facing the four directions. Sun and moon designs were
carved on each post and attached to each were eagle feathers and rattles of
precious stones and shells. "There were rattles made out of white bead
on the pole to the east, turquoise rattles to the south, oyster shell rattles
to the west, and jet rattles to the north." Perhaps the white rattles were
the ones that Sun's daughter used each morning to summon Sun's white horse,
a daily chore mentioned previously. Goldtooth said that when Sun himself shook
the rattles of white bead, the horse fetishes tied to the poles of the four
directions "would also begin to rattle and move just as if they were alive."
In fact, this was how the fetishes got their exercise, he noted, adding that
Sun also shook the rattles "to give pep and energy to all animals, plants,
bushes, trees and all things upon the earth." Pg. 57
A white shell basket stood there. In it was the water of a mare's afterbirth.
A turquoise basket stood there. It contained the water of the afterbirth. An
abalone basket full of eggs of various birds stood there. A jet basket with
eggs stood there. The baskets stand for quadrupeds, the eggs for birds. Now
as Changing Woman began to sing the Animals came up to taste. The horse tasted
twice; hence mares sometimes give birth to twins. One ran back without tasting.
Four times, he ran up and back again. The last time he said, "Sh!"
and did not taste. "She will not give birth. Long-ears (Mule) she will
be called," said Changing Woman. The others tasted the eggs from the different
places. Hence there are many feathered people. Because they tasted the eggs
in the abalone and jet baskets many are black.
O'Bryan's text, again more detailed and much clearer, supplies the missing links
of the Goddard version:
After the White Bead Woman's chanting, the four horses began to move, the white-bead
horse fetish, the turquoise horse fetish, the white-shell horse fetish and the
banded stone horse fetish. These four stone fetishes were made into living horses.
Life came into them and they whinnied. Then the White Bead Woman took the horses
from her home. She placed them on the white bead plain, on the turquoise plain,
on the white bead hill, and on the turquoise hill. Returning, she laid out four
baskets the white bead basket, the turquoise basket, the white shell basket,
and the black jet basket. In these she placed the medicine which would make
the horses drop their colts. The White Bead Woman then went outside and chanted,
and down came the horses from the hill; but instead of four there came a herd.
They circled the home, and they came to the baskets and licked up the medicine
with one lick. Now some of the horses licked twice around the baskets; so once
in a long while there are twin colts. But the horses that licked out of the
black jet basket licked more than once, and they have many colts. Then out of
the herd there came one with long ears. She snorted and jumped away; and the
second time she approached the basket she snorted and ran away. So she was not
to have young, either male or female. It was planned that the fetishes of the
horses were to be laid in the center of the earth, in a place called Sis na
dzil .... Pg. 61
A Navaho on foot was no menace to the Puebloans, but a Navajo or tribe of Navajos on horseback was a different equation. No longer were they a subservient race. They could strike, raid, and be away before the stone house dwellers could string their bows and shoot their arrows. The possession of horses brought a golden era of prosperity to the tribe. They stole sheep and goats from the Mexicans; from the Puebloans they stole corn and beans to plant in their own extensive fields, and wherever possible, they took women and children into slavery. The wealth of a clan was counted by the size of the flock of sheep, and for every man, woman, and child there was a horse to ride. Pg. xxiii
Since the horse was not indigenous to the western hemisphere, its arrival brought a wholly new way of life to most of the Indian tribes. It came to signify power and speed and wealth. Pg. 62
The acquisition of the horse had a profound effect upon Navajo culture. Not only did increased mobility enlarge the range and frequency of contact with non-Navajos, but also it altered the character of social relations within the tribe. It was now possible to visit more frequently and to attend ceremonial events from much greater distances. Thus, the audiences at ceremonials became larger, and this in turn may have led to the elaboration of the ceremonies themselves.
Another
came and also had the form of a man, but he wore a hairy coat, lined with white
fur, that fell to his knees and was belted in at the waist. His name was First
Angry or Coyote. He said to the three: "You beleive that you were the first
persons. You are mistaken. I was living when you were formed." Pg. 3
7- Informants Note: Some medicine men claim that witchcraft came with First
Man and First Woman, others insist that devil conception or witchcraft originated
with the Coyote called First Angry. Pg. 3
Then First Man called another chief. "Come here, old man," he said.
When this being came, First Man said that he should be named ma'i, the coyote.
But the coyote got angry and said: " Such a name!" And he declared
that he would not have it; and that he would leave; but First Man called him
back and told him that he would also be known as Atse'hashke', First Angry.
After that the coyote felt better. He thought that the had a great name given
him, and he went happily away, for he was told that he would know all the happenings
on the face of the earth. Pg. 34
October
was called Gahnji, meaning Half-Winter-and -Half-Summer, and its star is Sontso-dohn-doh-zeedi,
meaning North-Star-Stands-There. Pg.59
The Coyote claimed one month which was October, and Begochiddy made a prayer
stick of Lukatso (bamboo), half yellow and half white, representing summer and
winter, and gave it to him in answer to his claim. October is the mixed-up or
changing month and is so known to all the Indians. Pgs. 65,66
One day soon thereafter, while the elders were having a ceremony for a boy and a girl who had both come of age, the people saw the sky swooping down. It seemed to want to embrace the earth. And they saw the earth likewise looming up as if to meet the sky. For a moment they came in contact. The sky touched the earth and the earth touched the sky. And just then, at exactly the spot where the sky and the earth had met, Ma'ii the Coyote sprung out of the ground. And Nahashch'id the Badger sprung out of the ground. It is our belief that Ma'ii the Coyote and Nahashch'id the Badger are children of the sky. Coyote came forth first, which leads us to suppose that he is Badger's older brother. Nahashch'id the Badger began sniffing around the top of the hole that led down to the lower world. He finally disappeared into it and was not seen again for a long time. Ma'ii the Coyote chose to stay among the Surface People.
One of
the most controversial characters among the Navajo is Coyote, prince of chaos,
who is also the most notable catalyst. Transformer, troublemaker, trickster,
deity Coyote is all of these, and more. He stole the stars laid out by First
Man and scattered them, willy nilly, across the heavens. Yet, from Coyote's
unruly behavior, changes came about that made life better. From Coyote's foolishness,
mortals gained wisdom, learned what, and what not, to do. Coyote, as the forerunner
of change, created ways of doing things so that customs new moral codes, ceremonies,
designs for living came into being. Coyote's selfish acts thus clarified the
boundaries of human and animal conduct. Acting as the wise fool, Coyote is able
to speak and act as others of the holy pantheon, due to inherent decorum, cannot.
His role was, and is, a large one. In the literary sense, he is a court jester,
moral chorus, and commentator. Indirectly, by unleashing chaos on the world.
Pgs. 21, 22
According to Navajo lore, it is not Coyote's unusual atomic structure that gives
him his regenerative gift (like Wily Coyote in the popular cartoon, he is virtually
impossible to kill), rather it is his ability to hide his vital parts from harm
by storing them in the tip of his tail. Coyote imparts a message which has a
positive value for mortal beings: how to protect oneself from physical danger.
Pg. 45
"I know you are mad at me because of the way I've behaved, but I will be
the one to call for rain. And even if you do not like me, you will still need
me for many things." Pg. 91
And it happened that Coyote did not like the new name given to him by First
Man: First Angry. So he tried to steal the name of a mountain and then The People
named him He Who Moves Everything That Grows. For a while, he was content. Coyote
started raising a fuss again; this time he wanted more duties. So First Man
gave him control of wind, rain, and a part of childbirth, and for a while he
was content. Pg. 92
Coyote: Coyote is the inimitable trickster common to legend in most Native American
tribes. Both sacred and profane, Coyote gives birth to mischief and promise,
he is a deciever, but also a deliverer of good. Through his actions, change
becomes possible; and change, through good and bad, brings newness and breaks
conformity. Pg. 192
If Coyote
crosses your path, turn back and do not continue your journey. Something terrible
will happen to you you will have an accident be hurt or killed. Pg. 53
Don't bother a coyote that takes the first-born goat or lamb. It is his keeps
order in the world. If he is given the first-born freely, he hopefully will
leave the rest in peace. Pg. 55
While they were making the sheep, Coyote wanted to make a sheep too. They said no but finally they gave him some mud because they were afraid of him. He knew Sorcery. Then Coyote tried but he couldn't roll it out right. He tried four times but failed. Then he put the mud in his mouth and swallowed it. "That's what I'll do to any sheep I find," he said. Pg. 21
Throughout
Navajo mythology, Mah-ih the Coyote, is a figure of central importance. In the
last part of the myth of the Great Star Chant, when the sacred company are journeying
for power, they go first to Coyote. It is Coyote, the manifestation of animal
vitality, who separated Younger Brother from his family and caused him to go
to the sky where he learned Star wisdom and finally became one of the Holy People
through a long process of testing and instruction. Mah-ih was one of the first
powers to emerge in the beginning of things. In the black world, the first and
lowest in the order of creation, he brought fire to men. Characteristically,
he stole it from the Fire God. Later in the creation myth Coyote endangered
the world by stealing the child of Teoltsodi, the water monster. As the avenging
floods rose, the people were forced to climb to safety in the present white
world through a long hollow reed. But the waters followed and would have flooded
this world as well if Coyote's trickery had not been found out. He was forced
to give back the child and the floods receded. Though Coyote is tricky, his
power is great.
In the Emergence Myth collected by Father Berard (Navajo Religion Series, Vol.,
III) he curbs the sun and understands the process of creation. He has much of
the quality of Prometheus, or of Maui in New Zealand mythology. Like Loki, he
is mischievous but useful. He bears a striking resemblance to the fox spirit
of Japan and Korea and, in fact, the fox figure in mythology and folklore all
across the Old World. Everywhere he is tricky, troublesome, hard to control,
but, sometimes, helpful to man. Every conception of his character combines mischief
and rebellion with wisdom. In the Navajo Etsosi, or Feather Myth, he symbolizes
uninhibited lust in the lower world, but becomes more controlled and useful
when he emerges into the present world and is given control of rain. It is characteristic
of Navajo myths that when the stories leave the magic period of creation and
a hero is chosen and trained to be the transmitter of ceremonial knowledge and
power, Coyote has a special role in this training. He is there to act as frustrator
and goad to the hero if the latter shows signs of weakness or vacillation. Mah-ih
can triumph over the strong, but when he is vain, arrogant, greedy, libidinous,
he is foiled, often killed. But he comes to life again, irrepressible, and unchanged.
As the Great Star tells the hero in the Star Myth, we must accept the fact that
there will always be different kinds of people in the world, and among them
there will always be Coyote People. Coyote often represents the power of sex
in its trouble-making ungovernable aspect. Pgs. 102-103
The Coyote
now said: "Give me some dirt out of which you are making mountains!"
But they refused, saying: "You are not clever enough to make mountains."
He said: "Yes, I am clever enough." He asked this four times, and
finally the gods gave him some of the earth which was left after making so many
kinds of mountains, and the Coyote took it and made a peak in the south and
decorated it with aloe. He said: "This will be called my mountain."
It took shape of his paws and it has that shape now, and is called Pagosa Peak.
Pg. 65
While the gods were gone on the journey to the cave, the Coyote made some little
coyotes of his own, a white one from the east, a yellow one from the west which
was female, a blue one from the south which was a male, and a black coyote from
the north which was a female, and each pair stood nose to nose; and he also
made a dog which stood with the female black coyote. The names of these coyotes
were: the east, Ki-othkath-tee-ni-gosai, which means Turning-in-the-Daybreak;
west, Nahotsoi-nah-go-sai, which means Turning-in-the-Afterglow; south, Cahdidoth-dani-gosai,
which means Turning-in-the-Darkness; and the name of the dog was Dobinny-des-daha,
or Trailing Dog. Etsay-hashkeh also made some crazy coyotes. If one of these
should bite a human being, he would probably go mad. And also he made some mad
dogs whose bites would bring madness. Etsay-hashkeh made these creatures because
he did not know how to behave, and no one was there to know what he was doing.
And though Begochiddy knew what the Coyote was doing he was willing that these
animals should be made. Pg. 105
The Coyote, Etsay-hashkeh, said: "I will take some of the last people made,
Anlthtahn-nah-olyah, and a dog, and we will go north." So he went north
with a man, a woman, and two dogs. And these people never came back. They are
now called Dinneh-nahoo-lonai (Eskimo). Pg. 108
Coyote is present here as the eternal trickster and trouble-causer. But his mischief has a dual effect. It brings the dangerous and negative reaction of the flood, but also, because of the flood, forces the people up into a more complex and promising world. Pg. 60
Coyote, exponent of irresponsibility and lack of direction, seems to be an uncontrolled aspect of either Sun himself or his child. Coyote, as a child of Sky, represents lust on earth, matching Sun's promiscuity as a celestial being. Coyote, however, observes no rules. Sun, though reluctant and protesting, assumes responsibility for his children; Coyote sates his desire and leaves confusion or worse behind him. Any good that Coyote accomplished is fortuitous; Sun's good deeds, though forced, result in control. Coyote does all the daring things Sun would like to do - in fact, once did; Sun secretly gloats over them, but of necessity appears to disapprove.
In Coyote many aspects of evil power are embodied - he is active, with unlimited ability to interfere with people's affairs; his potentiality for turning up unexpectedly is enormous. He has a life principle that may be laid aside, so that any injury done to his body affects his life only temporarily and he may even recover from apparent death. He possesses an incredible fund of evil knowledge which man must match and, as he may appear in any form, he is the werewolf of Navajo witchcraft.
Coyote was allied with the First Pair as Crow was with Turkey Buzzard, in the capacity of spy. As First Man and First Woman went to their permanent home in the Northeast, where evil and danger originate, First woman threatened, "When I think, something bad will happen. People will become ill. Coyote will know (and presumably carry out) all my thoughts."
Some evils, fortunately few, the residue of unbelievable cruelty, refused to submit to any kind of control.
Then there
was a day when Coyote was very hungry indeed and stole some young green corn
out of the patch which belonged to Horned Toad. Horned Toad saw him doing this,
and he told Coyote he liked people to ask him for his corn and not to steal
it. Coyote just laughed at the little toad, and said he'd like some more corn.
Horned Toad cooked some for him three times, but when Coyote asked for corn
the fourth time Horned Toad was tired of his begging and refused. Coyote just
swallowed Horned Toad, and then walked all around the cornfield telling the
birds he met that it was his cornfield. After a while he went to the shelter
of Horned Toad and went to sleep. Soon after this Horned Toad got his strength
back and began to stir about in Coyote's stomach. Coyote thought the young green
corn was giving him a stomach ache. But when Horned Toad mad a loud hissing
noise inside Coyote he waked up and was frightened. He thought that this was
the noise spirits made when someone was going to die. But Horned Toad began
to laugh and laugh and to call out to Coyote. "Where am I, where am I? It is
very dark in here," he said.
"Ouch, that's my stomach. Stop hurting me," Coyote called back.
"Now I know you are sorry you ate my young green corn. Where am I now?" sang
out Horned Toad, giving Coyote another kick.
"Stop hurting me and come out. The place where you are now is in my bowels,"said
Coyote.
"Where am I now?" yelled Horned Toad as he kept crawling along.
"Get out of there. That's my windpipe," said Coyote, feeling almost choked.
But by this time Horned Toad was in Coyote's heart, and he just cut a cross
on it, and Coyote jumped four times into the air and fell back dead. Then Horned
Toad crawled out of the anus of Coyote and went back to his work in the field.
Pg. 48, 49.
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The division
of the year into twelve months may also have been superimposed on traditional
Navajo concepts. This may be why only some of the months have specific constellations
associated with them. Four of the months were said to have feather headdresses
composed of the following constellations: November (Nilch'its'osi, Time of Slender
Wind) had Hastiin Sik'ai'i (Old Man with Legs Ajar) as its feather; December
(Nilch'itsoh, Great Wind) had `Atse'etsoh (First Big One); January (Yas Nilt'ees,
Crusted Snow) had Yikaisdahi (Awaits-the-Dawn); and February (`Atsa Biyaazh,
Baby Eagle) had Gah heet'e'ii (Rabbit Tracks). In July (Ya'iishjaatsoh, Great
Seed Ripening), Dilyehe (which has no agreed-upon English translation) appears
in the early morning. Chamberlain's (1983) identification of these constellations
varies slightly from O'Bryan's. The following constellations rise heliacally
that is, they first appear in the morning sky before the sun comes up at the
following times: in November, Hastiin Sik'ai'i (Corvus) appears (O'Bryan identifies
this as Orion); in December, `Atse'etsoh (the front of Scorpius, or at least
Antares) is visible; in January, the brighter part of Yikaisdahi (Milky Way)
begins to appear like false dawn; in February, Gah heet'e'ii (the tail of Scorpius)
appears (O'Bryan identifies this as a star cluster under Canis Major); and by
July Dilyehe' (the Pleiades) is visible before the morning light. Pgs. 75, 77
Chanters A and B identified the eight major Navajo constellations recognized
today as Na'hookos bika'ii, the Big Dipper; Na'hookos ba'aadii, Cassiopeia;
Dilye'he', the Pleiades; A'tse'ets'ozi, Orion; Hastiin Sik'ai'i, Corvus; A'tse'etsoh,
the front part of Scorpius; Gah heet'e'ii, the tail of Scorpius; and Yikaisdahi,
the Milky Way.
The Big Dipper and Cassiopeia revolve around the almost motionless star called
Polaris, forming a universal reference point that is visible at all times of
the year in the northern hemisphere. The Navajo names for these constellations
translate as the Male One Who Revolves and the Female One Who Revolves, a reference
to their movement around Polaris, which is thought of as the source of their
illumination.
Dilye'he', the Pleiades, is a small but distinctive cluster of six easily visible
stars with a fainter seventh star; seven stars are usually depicted in Navajo
renderings.
Orion, whose Navajo names translates as the First Slim One, is a conspicuous
winter constellation composed primarily of a quadrangle of bright stars bisected
by three stars that form a belt.
Corvus (the Crow) has a Navajo name that means Man with Legs (or Feet) Ajar.
This constellation forms a quadrilateral figure located in a fairly dark part
of the sky; most Navajo renderings include four stars.
The large fishhook shape of Scorpius, a summer constellation in the southern
sky, is easily identifiable." The Navajo (as well as the Skidi Pawnee [Chamberlain
1982]) divide Scorpius into two constellations: A'tse'etsoh, the First Big One,
is the front of Scorpius, while Gah heet'e'ii, Rabbit Tracks, is the tail of
Scorpius.
Yikaisdahi, the Milky Way, is a universally known "landmark" in the
sky because of its continual presence and conspicuous appearance, owing to the
multitude of distant stars that compose this whitish ribbon.
The underlying theme of the story of stellar creation is the interplay of order
and disorder. While the Navajo recognize specific orderly groupings of stars
in the heavens, which were carefully placed by the Holy People, they consider
other stars to exist without patterning, in a state of disorder, as a result
of the impulsive actions of the trickster and philosopher, Coyote.
As with the other temporal markers, the stars were created for a purpose: not
only were they to provide light in the heavens for those times when the moon
was absent or waning, but also they were to provide seasonal and nightly markers
for agricultural, hunting, and ceremonial activities. Their creation, as part
of all Creation, was intended to unfold nizhonigo, or "in an orderly and
proper way," as discussed above. However, Coyote, "patron of disorder"
(Consultant G), intervened by disrupting both process and product.
Black God is generally considered to be the creator of the constellations; he
is also known as Fire God because he is responsible for all fire, including
the fire in the stars that is the source of their light. When diyin dine'e'
entered the hogan of Creation, "the sky and earth lay on the floor of the
hogan with heads pointing eastward, the sky on the south, the earth on the north
side. Both had received the 'breath of life' with various winds, though they
were not 'dressed' yet" (Haile 1947c:1).
In Haile's (1947c:1-4) version taken from Upward Reachingway, Black God entered
the hogan with Dilye'he' (the Pleiades) lodged at his ankle. When he stamped
his foot vigorously, the constellation jumped to his knee. Another stamp of
his foot brought it to his hip. He stamped again, bringing the constellation
to his right shoulder. The fourth and final time he stamped his foot, the Pleiades
lodged along his left temple where, he said, "it shall stay!" Thus,
Dilye'he' is located on Black God's mask (see figure 4.9). In Haile's work,
this constellation appears on Black God's left cheek (Haile 1947a) and on Black
God's temple (Haile 1947c:3). In my experience, the Pleiades is usually not
visible on Black God's mask, either in Nightway sandpaintings of Black God that
I have watched being made or on the mask worn by the Black God Impersonator.12
Chanter D explained that this is because Black God's face represents the entirety
of the heavens, and the Pleiades is very small in proportion to the entire sky.
Black God's feat of placing Dilye'he' where he wanted it confirmed to the supernaturals
in the creator group that he had the power to beautify the "dark upper,"
as they called the sky, by producing and placing constellations. Moving in the
sunwise circuit, Black God first positioned Corvus in the east. In the south,
he placed Horned Rattler (Haile does not list Western equivalents for all the
constellations he mentions), Bear, Thunder, and 'A'tse'etsoh (the front part
of Scorpius). In the north he placed the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, Orion, the
Pinching or Doubtful Stars (Aldebaran, lower branch of the Hyades), Gah heet'e'ii
(which Haile identifies as a star cluster under Canis Major, but which today
is generally identified as the tail of Scorpius); and finally the Pleiades.
Because none of these constellations could shine without an igniter star to
furnish their light, he added biko', an igniter. Finally, he sprinkled the heavens
with the Milky Way.
Black God, weary from the process of creation, was resting when Coyote snatched
Black God's fawnskin pouch, which contained the remaining unnamed and unplaced
star crystals. Coyote then flung these stats into the night sky where they were
scattered at random instead of forming the orderly patterns of constellations
for which they had been intended. According to Haile's (1947c:4) consultant,
"That explains why only the stars put there by Fire god [Black God] have
a name and those scattered at random by Coyote are nameless."
Suddenly, Coyote took one remaining crystal and deliberately placed it in the
south. This Coyote Star, Ma'ii bizo, was the source of confusion and disorder
just as Coyote intended it to be. Accounts disagree on the identity of this
"Monthless Star," so called because it is in the heavens for less
than a full month, as well as on whether it is one star (Haile 1947c:8, 1981a:129;
Klah 1942:58; O'Bryan 1956:21; Consultant G) or three (Matthews 1883:214).
While some accounts agree that Black God was in charge of the creation of the
stars (Haile 1947a:29-30, 60-61, 1947c:1-2, 1981a:128-29), others say that First
Man and First Woman or other Holy People were responsible (Klah 1942:39,66;
Matthews 1883:213-14, 1897:223-24; O'Bryan 1956:20-21;Yazzie 1971:21; Newcomb
1967:78-88; Chanter A).
Although accounts differ concerning the identity of the supernaturals responsible
for the creation of the stars, all versions do share the underlying theme of
the universe as an orderly system. The order inherent in the cosmos was meant
to serve as a pattern for proper behavior in both general and specific ways.
"laws," or rules for proper conduct, were symbolized in such constellations
as Gah heet'e'ii (the tail of Scorpius), whose seasonal movements determined
the periods when hunting would be allowed (Newcomb 1980:197). Similarly, the
two Na'hookos, the Male and Female Ones Who Revolve (the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia),
represented a married couple that encircled Polaris, the fire in the center
of their hogan; these two constellations, along with Polaris, represented laws
against two couples living in the same hogan or doing their cooking over the
same fire, as well as the mother-in-law avoidance law to be followed by her
son-in-law. Pgs. 78-88
The first man and the first woman made the sun and hung it in the heavens with
a spider web. Then they made the stars and hung them in the heavens; then they
made the rainbows and put them in the corners of the heavers. Then they said
to each other, "If we do not build a prop for the heavens they will fall
down; what shall we build it of?" So they thought and thought, and then
the man said. "We will make four men of mirage stone and put them at the
corners of the heavens on the rainbows, and they can hold the heavens up."
So they made them, and they hold the heavens up, and they never die. Then after
they had made the sun, moon, and stars, and all the things in the heavens and
the earth, with the aid of their son in the heavens, the man went to the house
of the sun in the east and the woman went to the house of the sun's wife in
the west. We cannot see them now but we can see their shadows and their fires
at night. The great bear is the shadow of the man, and Cassiopeia is the shadow
of the woman, and the north star is their fire. Scorpio is the shadow of the
chief of the good natured people, who died of old age; the walking stick is
his walking stick; the basket is what he eats form; the rabbit tracks are what
he eats. Corvus is the blue bottle fly that carried the news over the heavens;
the Pleiades are their ants, the yellow ants, the black ants, the little black
ants, the cicada, the badger, and the blue coyote, that came from beneath the
earth; after they died they went up there to live. The blush of dawn (the Milky
Way) is some bread that the first girl was making when the first boy stole it
and ran with it to the east, so it is there now. The war gods of the stars are
four guards that the first man and the first woman made to guard them while
they slept while they were on the earth, and when they stretched the earth they
set them up at the four corners to guard the earth. Their names are the big
black star, the big blue star, the big yellow star, and the big white star.
Pgs. 133,134
In the Big Starway, stars are the etiological factors; that is, stars cause
the patient to suffer form a host of symptoms, such as the mental distress,
insomnia, and bad dreams that characterize "ghost sickness" or bewitchment.
This is the only Chantway in which stars are the direct cause of illness; thus,
stars are most dangerous in this context. Although the sandpaintings of several
chants contain stars, the Big Starway and the Hand Tremblingway are the only
Chantways whose sandpaintings feature stars. The sandpaintings of the Big Starway
depict particular stars, such as the Big Blue Star, which is described as "a
. . . star which wanders about and shoots people with magic arrows to cause
fevers and mental aberration." Pg. 151
At the beginning of my research, I asked chanters about Reichard's (1950:470)
characterization of stars as "feared." When I asked if this was true
of all stars, every chanter and consultant answered with a resounding no. The
"feared" nature of the Blue Star comes from its association with witchcraft.
Pg. 152
References to Nahookos Bika'ii and Nahookos Ba'aadii or Big Dipper and Cassiopeia.
Relationships in myths of the Navajos and interpretations. Pgs. 153-156
References to Dilyehe (no translation) refer to Pages 156-163. Symbolism of
constellation.
The name Yikaisdahi (the Milky Way) means "Awaits-the-Dawn," a reference
to the manner in which this Navajo constellation is said to appear to glow more
brightly just before the break of day. Dawn is one of the four cardinal light
phenomena, a vital life-giving source. Consultant P explained that there is
a also a cane in the sky for Yikaisdahi and its associated star (planet), So'tsoh
(Venus), because they are associated with the dawn. "Yikaisdahi tells you
that the new day, the dawn, is coming, and the cane belongs to an old man who
leans on the cane while he waits for the sun to come up so that he can say prayers
and make a pollen blessing." Chanter A recounted a story about this constellation.
Coyote stole a piece of ash bread (made of corn and baked in an outdoor oven
or in the ashes) from First Man and First Woman. The ashes were then strewn
across the sky to form the Milky Way. Pg. 169
The creation
of the stars is attributed to Hashchezhini, the Fire God, who also distributed
the various constellations, giving each its peculiar name. As in other instances,
so also on this occasion the Coyote contrived to participate in the work of
creation by robbing the Fire God of his pouch in which he carried the material
for the stars. And after he had placed his own star conspicuously in the southern
skies he scattered the remnants of the pouch over the entire heavens, which
accounts for a multitude of stars bearing no special name. In consequence, too,
the entire creation of the stars is attributed by some to the Coyote. Though
there are comparatively few constellations the names of which are generally
known, it is none the less well established that astrology is extensively practiced
among the Navaho. The fact that the class of singers pursuing dest'i, "looking,"
or astrology, are much in demand previous to the conducting of any important
ceremony, would seem to indicate as much. Hence it is reasonable to assume that
a much wider knowledge of the various constellations exists than is here indicated.
This knowledge, however, is in possession of some few individuals who are loath
to disclose it, owing to the circumstances that astrological pursuits, which
require the secret and solitude of night, are opprobriously classified with
witchcraft.
The older shamans were wont to initiate their pupils gradually into the intricacies
of astronomy by pointing out the new constellations to them as they appeared
on the horizon. And as an apprenticeship usually required several years, sufficient
time was had to make the initiation a thorough one. This extended also to stellar
influence on climatic changes, or the destinies of man, with the corresponding
remedies, and the like information. Certain portions, however, of this knowledge
were enveloped in some mystery, which was lifted only after the most rigid test
of fidelity. Thus, for instance, words like sa'a naghai, "in old age walking,"
and bik'e hozho, "on the trail of beauty," are said to signify some
important, though well known constellation, a change in which would prove disastrous
to the existence of the universe. Hence this invocation, which is attached to
a large number of prayers and songs, would seem to be a petition for the preservation
and prolongation of age and life, while "the trail of beauty" (in
the skies) indicates the proper key to their interpretation. What may be considered
an instance of stellar influence upon climatic changes is told of i'ni, thunder,
a constellation appearing in the southern skies, and a companion of the constellation
shash, the bear. When i'ni beets'os, the feather or tip of thunder approaches
and touches the snout (bichi') of the bear, it is a reliable indication of the
return of thunder in spring, with the renewal of life in vegetation and the
animal kingdom. As a rule each larger constellation is equipped with satellites,
large stars, which form an integral part of a given group. Thus, atseets'osi
beets'os, the feather or tip of Orion; shash beets'os, the feather of the bear.
They are also provided with bokho, fire or flint of the star, which ignites
it, and in other instances with bizhi, body, bichi, nose, bija, ears, or bitse',
tail, to distinguish and trace the figure. . . . . . . atseets'osi, tailfeather,
or the slender first one; the belt and sword of Orion. ets'osi, the feather,
was the name given by Hashchezhini, the Fire God, which Coyote changed to atseets'osi
(atsedi ets'osi, of the First feather), with reference to himself; hence, the
Coyote's feather. Pgs. 42, 44
When First Woman placed the stars in the night sky, she used them to spell out all the laws that would be needed by the first people. These could not be written in the sand or on the water, since few people could not see them there, but when they were written in the sky, everyone could look up and study them. In Navajo star lore there are constellations named for all the animals mentioned in their mythology. There is the bear, the wolf, the porcupine, the badger, the chipmunk, the elk, the mountain sheep, the Gila monster, the lizard, the horned toad, the bumblebee, and may others. The five stars that form the "rabbit tracks" are called the "hunter's guide." When this constellation is in one position, the hunters lay aside their bows and arrows and remain at home. But when it tips to the east, the young of the deer and the antelope are no longer dependent on their mothers, and the hunting season begins. The coyote star in the south is the same as our "dog star," and the polar star is called the campfire of the heavens." Pgs. 196-197
Stars (so') (U) are feared by the Navaho. Big Stars figure in the Big Star and Hand Trembling chants, both Evil. Perhaps, being closely associated with First Man and Coyote, stars were never brought under dependable control. When First Man was planning the sky, he intended to arrange the stars deliberately and carefully. He had placed a few constellations nicely when Coyote passed by, pulled out some hairs, and blew them up to the sky, where they became red stars. Coyote then gathered up the rest of the stars and, by blowing, sent them up to the sky, where they now shine in the indeterminate clusters of the Milky Way (Darkness; Reichard, Big Star Chant ms.; Goddard, pp. 137-8; cp. Tozzer 1908, pp. 28-32; Haile 1938b, pp. 67-8).
Once, in
hearing two conflicting presentations of the same origin tale, I asked why they
were not the same. The answer, according to one storyteller, was that "not
everyone has the same mind, or the same thought." I have also heard it
said:"Not everyone who listens hears the same words." Pgs. 69, 70
After this, all the Animal People came up. Lion, Deer, Antelope (these are now
the Pueblo people, the Ute people and the Apache people) also came. Two people
who came up had arrows in their hands:One went to the sun and the other went
to the moon. There were four white-faced people who came up (these are the White
people of today) and they were riding upon a rainbow. They went away, but they
said they would return one day and teach what they knew to the others. Pgs.
78, 79
The Anglo metaphor that equates people's beginnings with their "roots" also exists in Navajo: the correct way to begin in Navajo culture is with one's roots, whether it is working from the feet upward for ceremonial procedures, or stating one's mother's clan and one's father's clan as a means of introducing oneself. It is only by establishing a deeply rooted foundation that people have strength and stability; if their roots are too shallow they fall over in the wind like a corn plant without sufficient root structure (here we see another aspect of the metaphor that equates the corn plant with human life). People's roots must go back into an established family structure and deep into the earth, connecting each individual to all other living beings and to the earth itself. Pgs. 193-94
Meanwhile
the gods reached the cave, and they had to use ladders to reach down to the
Hahheenah-dinneh or Emergence people and bring them up to the surface of the
earth. So the people came out onto this earth, and were very glad to leave the
cave as they had been there a long time, and had been much worried about what
was going to become of them. The little ants were the first to come out, and
the turkey people were the last, and Hashjeshjin (the Fire God) counted them
as they came out. The gods told them that they had made a beautiful world and
that it was quite safe and they answered:"We are glad." Begochiddy
then said to the gods that all people in the future should have different languages
and the gods agreed to this. They divided all the clothing so that each people
should have a certain share, and the beasts also could choose which tribe they
should join. The Navahos took the best seed of the corn while the Pueblos and
Zuni took the poorer seeds. The birds chose their tribes, but only the turkey
people chose to go with the Navahos. Estsan-ah-tlehay, the Changing Woman, took
the turkeys and held them in her arms.
Begochiddy and the gods said to the people:"You are all going to have different
languages now, live differently, and do your hair in different ways." The
Navajos did their hair in a queue and the other tribes cut their across the
front, and this is the way they do it to this day. They told the birds how they
were to live and build their nests and they all agreed to do as they were told.
Then Begochiddy told the people how they were to worship. They must beep the
prayer stick or ceremonial Kehtahns holy, and they must place pollen and flint
and shell beads and turquoise and medicine near the Kehtahns when they pray,
and Begochiddy will hear them and answer their prayers. Pgs. 106-107
The chanter Klah believed that a people different from the Navajo would succeed them. He thought the whites were the successors and for this reason was not only willing to teach them the fundamentals of Navajo belief but also deeply concerned that they should learn accurately.
The hoop ceremonies of the Navajo have been compared by anthropologists to mandalas, Paleolithic sunwheels, or "magic circles." Spruce, willow, and other hoops represent the four passages of man through the four elemental worlds. They are also symbolic of the four directions, the four sacred mountains, the four-cornered construct of the human family mother, father, son, daughter and the four stages of human life. By passing through the sacred hoops, symbolically, man reemerges himself, reintegrates himself, immunizes himself. From a weakened state, he passes through the hoops of life into psychological/ physiological harmony. Pg. 33
They say that "mist on the horizon is the pollen that has been offered to the gods." Pg. 29
"The
First,". . . . . "So much importance is attached in both myth and
practice to beginning an event or to the first time an act takes place as to
make initiation a major symbol . . . . Apparently the first try has power because
it signifies the purpose and predicts the outcome." Pg. 375
The number four is emphasized most strongly. Ideally, the Kinaalda is a four-day
ceremony. Many of its rites and songs include references to four or its multiples.
Pg. 375
hadahuniye' also designates a stone similar to agate which is used ceremonially with other precious stones. Formerly this stone was a distinguishing feature of the chiefs and was attached to the hair cord. Pg. 41
Avoidances
are intensified during critical periods in the life of the individual. A pregnant
woman is supposed to observe an enormous number of taboos, and her husband must
share some of them lest his wife and unborn child be injured. For the person
who has just been a patient in a curing rite, for the adolescent girl, for the
menstruating woman, the thou-shalt-nots of daily life are multiplied. As we
have already seen, Navaho fears and avoidance reach a climax in the complex
of beliefs and acts connected with death. It is believed that only witches will
go near places of burial. There is some avoidance of uttering even the names
of dead people. Navahos are brought up to fear many forces in the supernatural
world, but they are also taught ways of coping with them. In most cases, there
are ways to effect a cure after the threat has struck. Every adult Navaho has
"gall medicine," a preparation of the galls of various animals, which
he takes as an emetic if he fears that he has absorbed a witch's "corpse
poison." Everyone is particularly careful to carry a little sack of gall
medicine on his person when he goes into large gatherings of strangers. In the
hogan will be kept plants and other protectives against and remedies for witchcraft.
In buckskin pouches in every dwelling will be found herbs, pollen, bits of turquoise
and shell, tiny carved images of sheep and horses.
The use of the pollen of corn and other plants is very important in maintaining
the proper relationship to the Holy People. In old-fashioned households the
day still begins with the sprinkling of pollen from one of the little bags and
a brief murmured prayer. After the evening meal the members of the family rub
their limbs and say, "May I be lively. May I be healthy." More pollen
may be offered and a Blessing Way song sung.
The spectacular ceremonials so capture the imagination that it is easy to forget
that, for all their drama, they are quantitatively but a small part of the ritual
life of The People. The daily routine of every member of the family is tinged
by ceremonial observances as well as avoidances. The weaver uses songs and prayers.
The tanner places a turquoise or white shell bead on his pole in order to protect
his joints from becoming stiff. A squirrel's tail should be tied to a baby's
cradle so that the child will be protected in case of a fall. Every family has
a number of "good luck songs" which are believed to bring protection
to family members and their property, to aid in the production of ample crops,
and to secure increase of flocks and herds. Such songs are regarded as important
property which a father of uncle may transmit to son or nephew. Pgs. 141-142
Without everyday symbolisms, allegory, and color, Navajo life would be drab. Man, woman, or child, every Navajo carries a personal fetish, the symbol of protection. This may consist of a very simple object-a small stick or a jewel, such as a turquoise. The figure four is symbolic of many good things in life, since all good things come to the Navajo through a cycle of four seasons. Each season is given a symbolic color:spring is white; summer is blue; fall is yellow; and winter is black. Each of these colors in turn is assigned to the four cardinal points of the compass:white for east, blue for south, yellow for west, and black for north. However, when dangerous or underground places are being described, some of these colors are reversed. White comes to stand for north, and black for east. Colors are also assigned to the sexes. Black symbolizes the Navajo man, because the cold rough winds come from the north. By the same reasoning, white stands for the Navajo woman because the breezes in spring are gentle and warm. Yellow corn belongs to the female and white corn to the male. The same basic colors are used by the medicine man in coloring masks and painting a patient's body. Red is the symbol of sunshine and as such it is used in their sandpaintings. All these five colors are sacred to the Navajos.
Dreams
have much to do with disease and curing. Legend occasionally includes dreams
as a means of supernatural communication.
Whiteshell Woman appeared in a dream to the little girl she loved and explained
why she had left home.
After Reared-in-the-mountain had had his Earth family purified and had stayed
with them a while, he became accustomed to their odor, but he dreamed that the
gods were begging him to return to them.
Dreams are related to belief in sympathetic magic and in reversal: Dreams of
deer or of killing rare game are good.
Monster Slayer dreamed he was picked up by Throwing Monster, and told his mother
about the dream. He took it to mean that he would succeed in subduing the creature.
Dreams during a ritualized activity are exceptionally potent, hence the rigidity
and number of restrictions at such times: the interpretation of dreams during
a Rain Ceremony was related to it. Dreams of rain, corn, or flowers were good;
dreams of drought were bad (cp. Ch. 11, 15; Whiteshell Woman, Con. A; Morgan
1931, 1936; for Lincoln, see Kluckhohn-Spencer, p. 54; Hill 1936, p. 13; 1938,
pp. 43, 50; Matthews 1887, pp. 390, 417; 1897, p. 139; Reichard, Shooting Chant
ms.).
Footprints are a common symbol, especially of pollen and sandpaintings, where
they represent the road of life, or the trail of safety.
When a girl and boy were spirited away from the mythological cornfield, the
people made four footprints of white corn outside the house and four footprints
and handprints of corn pollen inside the house and prayed for the return of
the children.
This is one of two references to handprints I have found, the other being a
note that people prayed with their hands pressed into handprint impressions
in a rock.
Footprints lead onto sandpaintings as in those of the Shock and Prayer on buckskin
rites of the Evil ceremonies.
One of the few descriptions of Sun's physical features is a reference to giant
footprints (Wheelwright 1942, p. 122 and paintings; Goddard, pp. 154, 174; Newcomb
1940b, p. 56; Kluckhohn-Wyman, p. 172; Reichard 1944d, p. 113; Matthews 1887,
p. 164; 1897, p. 108; 1902, pp. 164, 181; Haile 1938b, p. 125; Oakes-Campbell,
pp. 38, 39).
Queue (tsi'ye'l) represents Child-of-the-water as the bow represents Monster
Slayer (Bow symbol; Haile 1938b, pp. 59, 179, 315, 27n).
Racing is a rite that seems to symbolize strength and fortitude, qualities that
please the gods.
Changing Woman ran at the Adolescence Ceremony and ended the race by jumping
over the fire. According to the myth of the War Ceremony, she ran the race 'because
of, at the instigation of Sun' and at the time of her second menses because
of Moon.
Rainboy of the Hail Chant lost his life in a race with Frog and later with supernatural
aid won Frog's life.
One of the Racing Gods, exemplary youths, was challenged to run an impossible
race-around the base of Mt. Taylor-for the Navaho; his brother was to run for
the visiting tribes. The older Racer won the high stakes put up by the Navaho.
At a second try-to run around all the foothills of the San Mateo range-the Navaho
bet only half as much as they had won on the first race and lost; the younger
brother won the stakes for the visitors. The strangers regretted their net loss,
but one of their wise men spoke comfortingly: "You have done well, for
had you lost the second race you would have lost with it the rain, the sunshine,
and all that makes life glad" (Goddard, p. 151; Haile 1938b, pp. 86-9;
Reichard 1944d, pp. 15-7, 23; Matthews 1887, pp. 415-7).
Sunbeam and sunray are partners acting as mentor, protection, and conveyance.
Most translations do not differentiate them. After much discussion with informants,
who do not agree, I have translated ca'didi'n as 'sunbeam,' the light ray from
a cloud with the sun behind it, and cabitlo'l as 'sunray,' the alternating dark
rays between the light beams. The former is generally yellow and white in sandpainting;
the latter is red and blue.
Sunbeam and sunray formed field glasses through which Monster Slayer could see
long distances.
The pattern for the War Ceremony rattlestick was originally brought to Earth
People by Sunbeam and Sunray (Haile 1938b, pp. 205, 215; Stephen 1930, p. 89).
Sunglow (cabitla' djiltci') is represented by a red head-dress. Many of the
Shooting Chant paintings show figures wearing this headdress. It is one of the
chanter's bundle properties, worn by his representative in the Fire Dance.
In the origin story it is said that Cicada offered sunglow to birds of the second
world for the right to enter it. The birds put it on their wings and were so
pleased that they gave permission.
A red bonnet was worn by Scavenger of the Bead Chant. It had been given Sun
as a trophy of a pueblo chief's daughter (Stephen 1930, p. 94; Reichard 1939,
p. 28; Newcomb-Reichard, p. 48).
The dimensions of a basket often exceed twelve to fourteen inches in diameter, and are usually a fraction more than three inches in depth. As a material, the twigs of sumac (ki, or chilchin) are used. A triple incision is made into the butt end of the twig, one part of which is held between the teeth while the other two are torn off with the fingers. Each part is then scraped clean of its bark with a knife of piece of tin, and the twigs to be dyed are laid aside in a heap, while the natural color of the twig furnishes the lighter shades of the designs. The dyes used are identical with those used for coloring wool, though, obviously, the mordant of boiled sumac leaves (ki) becomes superfluous. Cedar ashes supposedly add luster to the color and contribute to its adhesive quality. Black was obtained from surface coal (lejin), added to boiling sumac leaves (ki), or from a sulfurous rock (tsekho), slightly roasted (ilt'es) with pine gum or rosin (je'). When ready this was added to the boiling twigs giving them a lustrous black color similar to charcoal (t'esh nahalin). The root of juniper (gad behetl'ol) and mountain mahogany (tseesdasi behetlol) are boiled together, after which the ground bark of alder (kish yikago) is added to obtain a pale red, into which the twigs are immersed. At times the joint fir (tlo' azehi, Ephedra trifurcata) is substituted for alder bark, while cedar ashes add luster to the color.
Blue was frequently obtained with indigo, though a native blue is also prepared from a bluish clay or ocher called adishtl'ish, which is pulverized and mixed with water. Various shades of yellow are obtained with plants like Bigelovia (kiltsoi), the sneeze weed (naeeshja ilkhei, Helenium hoopesii), or the sorrel (jat'ini), the flowers of which are crumpled and boiled, with cedar ashes thrown in.
The dyeing done, the twigs, both colored and uncolored, are placed in water to render them moist and pliable. The butt ends of the first twigs are wound around a small stick known as the bottom of the basket, and secured there with yucca. An awl, made of deer-bone (bi' bikhetsin), is now used in sewing the basket for which an iron awl is found impractible. The sewing is always done sunrise, or from left to right, giving the basket the shape of a helical coil when finished. Much deftness and constant application are required to obtain a close weave which will hold water after a few minutes moistening, while baskets of inferior quality require moistening much longer. The designs are, of course, woven with the colored twigs. Yellow and blue, however, are now rarely used, and the usual pattern is a band three to six inches wide, woven with zigzag edges in black with a line of red running through the center, and set, as it were, on a light background made of the natural color of the twig. Or, this band is sometimes displaced by a set of four or more square figures woven at intervals, with a colored circle entwining the lower part of each square. The colors in this and the first pattern might be increased to two or more according to taste. Both patterns are designated as tsa', basket, without reference to their designs. Of the two extinct patterns, the tsa' netse', or coiled basket, presented a design of vari-colored coils following each other, while the tsa' hokhani, or basket of enclosures, presented a set of four triangles whose apices rested on the center or bottom of the basket. From the base of each of these triangles three squares, increasing in width, extended to the rim of the basket, giving the whole design a shape similar to the Maltese Cross. While no special rules were laid down with regard to the blending of colors, or the number of figures and circles in a design, it was essential that every design be broken or intersected by a line of uncolored twigs. In baskets with circular designs this was comparatively easy, but in the tsa' hokhani, or basket of enclosures, it was found necessary to intersect one set of squares in order to make this line quite apparent. It was therefore called qaatqin (qatqin), the way out, or chohot'i, the line leading out, and was prescribed lest the sewer, in bending all her energies and applications upon her work, enclose herself and thus lose her sight and mind. A parallel is found in overdoing weaving, singing, in amassing fortune, or in the opening left in the figure of the queue and bow. This intersection always runs in a radial line with the close of the seam on the imbricated rim of each basket, which in turn serves as a guide in the directional assignment, as the close always faces eastward. Hence the singer always looks or feels for the closed rim, designated as bida' astl'o, where the rim is woven (instead of sewed). The details involved in mending this rim, as well as the taboo placed upon the wearing of a basket as a headgear, the legends of the origin of the basket, and relative subjects, are beyond the scope of the present work. Suffice to say, that the basket is made exclusively for ceremonial use, and is an integral part of every rite, as none is holy (diyin) without it.
The strength and elasticity of the Navaho basket renders it serviceable as a drum, in other words, it is turned down and beaten with the drumstick. Should it be turned up again before the close of the ceremony, it indicates that the singer has suspended the continuation of the ceremony. The basket is also used as a receptacle for the rattles, prayersticks, stones, herbs, medicines, and like ceremonial paraphernalia. The ceremonial bath is administered in the basket. The mask of the Fringed Mouth (zahodolzhai) is supported on a basket from which the bottom has been cut out. At the marriage ceremony a new basket is required in which to serve the porridge. As it is frequently impossible for the couple to consume its contents, the basket is passed around to the visiting guests. Whosoever consumes the final portion of the porridge also takes possession of the basket, wherefore baskets thus obtained are designated as tsa' na'obani, or the basket which was won. It is otherwise referred to as danakhan bi'odani, the basket from which they eat the porridge. The so-called wedding basket is therefore unknown. In the early days baskets were woven of yucca braid. The pith of the yucca leaf was extracted and dyed in the same manner as sumac twigs today. It was also permissible to use the designs of the basket in the decoration of the uppers for moccasins made of yucca. The remnants of twigs used for baskets are employed in constructing the so called owls (naeshja). Pgs. 291-296
Even such everyday tasks as weaving must be done only in moderation. Many women will not weave more than about two hours at a stretch; in the old days unmarried girls were not allowed to weave for fear they would overdo, and there is a folk rite for curing the results of excess in this activity. Closely related is the fear of completely finishing anything: as a "spirit outlet," the basket maker leaves an opening in the design. Pgs. 225-226
According to Washington Matthews the Navahoes have many legends with which baskets are connected. Here is a description of the first baby baskets ever made. Surely none but a poetic and imaginative people could ever have conceived so wonderful a basket. Their gods of war were born of two women, one fathered by the sun, the other by a waterfall, and when they were born they were placed in baby baskets both alike as follows: The foot-rests and the back battens were made of sunbeam, the hoods of rainbow, the side-strings of sheet lightning, and the lacing strings of zigzag lightning. One child they covered with the black cloud, and the other with the female rain.
Another form of this story says that the boy born first was wrapped in black cloud. A rainbow was used for the hood of his basket and studded with stars. The back of the frame was perihelion, with the bright spot at its bottom shining at the lowest point. Zigzag lightning was laid in each side and straight lightning down the middle in front. Niltsatlol (sunbeams shining on a distant rainstorm) formed the fringe in front where Indians now put strips of buckskin. The carry-straps were sunbeams. Pg. 23
In many Indian ceremonies baskets play a most important part. For nine days these ceremonies last, the first day being devoted to the building and dedication of a medicine hogan and a sweat house. Around this sweat house wands of turkey feathers were placed, which were brought hither in one of these sacred baskets; and when the sweating process was over the wands were collected, placed in the basket and removed to the medicine hogan. On the fourth day two of these baskets figured prominently in the ceremonies. A medicine basket containing amole root and water was placed in front of a circle made of sand and covered with pine boughs. A second basket contained water and a quantity of pine needles sufficiently thick to form a dry surface, and on the top of these needles a number of valuable necklaces of coral, turquoise and silver were placed. A square was formed on the edge of the basket with four of the turkey wands before mentioned. The song priest with rattle led several priests in singing. The invalid sat to the northeast of the circle, a breech cloth his only apparel. During the chanting an attendant made suds by macerating the amole and beating it up and down in the water. The basket remained in position; the man stooped over it, facing north; his position allowed the sunbeams which came through the fire opening to fall upon the suds. When the basket was a mass of white froth the attendant washed the suds from his hands by pouring water from a Paiuti basket water-bottle (Fig. 20) over them, after which the song priest came forward and with corn pollen drew a cross over the suds, which stood firm like the beaten whites of eggs, the arms of the cross pointing to the cardinal points. A circle of the pollen was then made around the edge of the suds." This crossing and circling of the basket of suds with the pollen is supposed to give them additional power in restoring the invalid to health. The invalid now knelt upon the pinion boughs in the center of the same circle. "A handful of the suds was placed on his bead. The basket was now placed near to him, and he bathed his head thoroughly ; the maker of the suds afterwards assisted him in bathing the entire body with the suds, and pieces of yucca were rubbed upon the body. The chant continued through the ceremony and closed just as the remainder of the suds was emptied by the attendant over the invalid's head. The song priest collected the four wands from the second basket, and an attendant gathered the necklaces; a second attendant placed the basket before the invalid, who was now sitting in the center of the circle, and the first attendant assisted him in bathing the entire body with this mixture; the body was quite covered with the pine needles, which had become very soft from soaking. The invalid then returned to his former position at the left of the song priest, and the pine needles of the yucca,or amole, together with the sands, were carried out and deposited at the foot of a pinion tree. The body of the invalid was dried by rubbing with meal." This taking out of the sands, pine needles, etc., used in the ceremony was supposed to take away so much of the disease that had been washed from the invalid.
Later in the day at another most elaborate ceremony baskets filled with food are placed in a circle around a fire in the medicine lodge. One of the priests takes a pinch of food from each basket, and places it in another basket. This is then prayed over, smoked over and thus made a powerful medicine by the song-priest. After the priest has gone through several performances with it, the invalid dips his three first fingers into the mixture, puts them in his mouth, and loudly sucks in the air. This is repeated four times. Then all the attendants do likewise, with a prayer for rain, good crops, health and riches. This food is afterwards dried by the chief medicine man, made into a powder, and is one of his most potent medicines. On the sixth day a great sand painting is made in the medicine lodge, and the invalid, as he enters, is required to take the sacred medicine basket, which is now filled with sacred meal, and sprinkle the painting with it. The chief figures of the painting were the goddesses of the rainbow, whose favor it was desired he should gain. Again and again in the ceremonies these sacred baskets are used, and on the ninth day in the concluding dance the invalid takes it full of sacred meal and sprinkles all the dancers. The full description of this wonderful series of ceremonies is found in the Eighth Annual Report of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology.
If the margin is worn through or torn, the basket is unfit for sacred use. The basket is one of the perquisites of the shaman when the rites are done; but he, in turn, must give it away, and must he careful never to eat out of it. Notwithstanding its sacred uses, food may be served in it by any other person than the shaman who has used it ceremonially. Fig. 29 shows the other form of Navaho sacred basket. It is also made of aromatic sumac, and is used in the rites to hold sacred meal. The crosses are said to represent clouds, heavy with rain, and would indicate that this basketry design may have had its origin in its use during ceremonies intended to bring the rain. Another important ceremony of the Navahoes in which this basket figures is that of marriage. Another interesting thing about this Navaho wedding basket it is well to notice, and that is that the finishing off of the last coil of the basketry always comes directly opposite to the Shipapu opening. This is for the purpose of enabling those who use the basket at night to determine where the Shipapu opening is, so that they may hold the basket in the proper ceremonial way, which requires that the Shipapu opening shall always be turned towards the East. This finishing off place on the rim of the basket is called by the Navahoes the a-tha-at-lo. According to Matthews, the sacred basket used in all these ceremonials has another important function to perform. It is used as a drum. He says: "In none of the ancient Navaho rites is a regular drum or tomtom employed. The inverted basket serves the purpose of one, and the way in which it is used for this simple object is rendered devious and difficult by ceremonious observances." Then over a page of description is required to tell how the shamans proceed when they "turn down the basket" to make a drum of it at the beginning of the songs, and "turn up the basket" at the close. Everything is done with elaborate ceremony. "There are songs for turning up and turning down the basket, and there are certain words in these songs at which the shaman prepares to turn up the basket by putting his hand under its eastern rim, and other words at which he does the turning. For four nights, when the basket is turned down, the eastern part is laid on the outstretched blanket first, and it is inverted toward the west. On the fifth night it is inverted in the opposite direction. When it is turned up, it is always lifted first at the eastern edge. As it is raised an imaginary something is blown toward the east, in the direction of the smoke-hole of the lodge, and when it is completely turned up hands are waved in the same direction, to drive out the evil influences which the sacred songs have collected and imprisoned under the basket."
Even in the making of this sacred basket many ceremonial requirements must be heeded. In forming the helical coil, the fabricator must always put the butt end of the twig toward the center of the basket and the tip end toward the periphery, in accordance with the ceremonial laws governing the disposition of butts and tips. Pgs. 33-37
By 1973 there were over 100 basket weavers on and off the reservation, and 125 potters in Chinle Agency alone. At least in part, commercialization stimulated the revival of these crafts. . . . . In the Oljeto area, basketweavers began producing baskets with yei figures woven into their designs. While such baskets could not be used in religious ceremonies, they found a ready market with non-Indians. Pg. 252
The Navajo wedding basket also reflects many values of traditional life and so often contains all six sacred mountains, including Huerfano and Gobernador Knob, though the size of the basket may determine the number of mountains in the design. The center spot in the basket represents the beginning of this world, where the Navajo people emerged from a reed. This is where the spirit of the basket lives. The white part around the center is the earth, the black symbolizing the sacred mountains upon which are found water bowls. Above them are clouds of different colors. The white and black ones represent the making of rain. A red section next to the mountains stands for the sun's rays that make things grow. Pg. 19
The basket for the emetic in the first War Ceremony was of crystal.
An indispensable requirement of a chant is the basket; at least one is believed
to represent whiteshell. All the precious stones are mythical basket materials.
Frequently the basket is of one stone with a contrasting rim - whiteshell rimmed
with turquoise or the reverse; abalone rimmed with redstone or the reverse,
jet with an abalone rim or the reverse.
__
The fibers of baskets used to be of yucca. Baskets are not used much secularly but have a prescribed place in ceremonies.
They are often called "wedding" baskets because one holds the ceremonial
mush which the bride and groom eat alternatingly. The function of the basket
in curing ceremonies is perhaps greater, but not as well known. When preparations
for a ceremony are made, one of the questions asked is, "How many baskets
must be provided?" They become consequently an important item of trade.
Their manufacture is surrounded with such a number of taboos difficult to keep
that Navajo rarely make them, preferring to trade them from their neighbors,
the Ute and Paiute, who have not the prescribed taboos.
Another form of purification is the yucca bath. The "one-sung-over"
bathes from head to foot in the yucca suds which fill a ceremonial basket. He
is careful to stand within the limits of a platform made of sand from the cornfield
which has been carefully spread. On it special places are designated for the
basket and for the patient's knees and hands, for he kneels to get his hair
in the basket. The water which drains off of him must fall on the sand. When
all is over, this may be gathered up like a blotter and the evils may be carried
out and dissipated.
An indispensable requirement of a chant is the basket; at least one is believed to represent whiteshell. All the precious stones are mythical basket materials. Frequently the basket is of one stone with a contrasting rim - whiteshell rimmed with turquoise or the reverse; abalone rimmed with redstone or the reverse, jet with an abalone rim or the reverse.
The basket for the emetic in the first War Ceremony was of crystal.
Basket (tsa') has already been extensively treated. There are, however, certain points that have not been stressed; one concerns the number of baskets necessary to a ceremony-the discussions often imply that there is only one (Ch. 14). A part of the agreement between chanter and sponsor is the provision of the baskets, as important as the payment to the singer. When the chant is over, some baskets are presented to the chanter or some other participant in the ceremony; borrowed baskets are returned to the owner, who may be the chanter or almost anyone who can provide them. Certain taboos, some very strict, attach to the basket. Nowadays it has become an article of trade, procurable at a trading post. Baskets so bought may be considered neutral, having no restrictions and no evil attached to them; the ceremony gives them blessing value.
Because of the 'drawing power' of the earth, sacred objects should not touch the ground; consequently, ceremonial properties-War Ceremony rattlestick, prayersticks, hoops, bundle equipment-must be placed on or in something; it is often a basket, especially for assembled bundle equipment.
I had to provide five baskets for the Shooting Chant Prayerstick branch. I paid for four and borrowed one from RP, the chanter. One was used for the layout of branch symbol prayersticks during their preparation and for the subsequent bundle equipment layout, one for the emetic, one for the drum, one for the bath, and one for the ceremonial mush. After the bath the chanter put his bundle layout in the basket that had been used for the bath. Every ceremony undoubtedly has similar requirements; some have more, some fewer.
The basket represents jewels and therefore the potentiality of wealth, with its provision for proper offerings. Baskets are often thought of as consisting of one of the precious stones, rimmed with a contrasting jewel (Ch. 12); such baskets are prescribed for the Hail Chant. In addition, one of Heat and one of Mirage (aragonite) are required. The War Ceremony emetic was prepared and the unseasoned mush was served in a rock-crystal basket. Since the mush was inexhaustible, there is a relation between the rock-crystal basket and the yellow bowl.
The Flint Chant baskets represent jewels; the plants put into them ceremonially became meat which, with other plants eaten by rare game, became gruel (Kluckhohn-Wyman, pp. 44, 60; Matthews 1894b, pp. 202-8; 1897, p. 211, 5n; Haile 1938b, pp. 33, 105, 207, 243; 1943a, pp.15, 184, 190; Goddard, pp. 142, 164; Reichard 1944d, p.49; Shooting Chant ms.; Tschopik, pp. 257-62).
Basket drum was described by Matthews and Kluckhohn-Wyman (Matthews 1894b; 1902, pp.59-63, 163, 165; Kluckhohn-Wyman, p.44; Haile 1938b, pp.33, 243).
