The Inuit

Other Arctic Tribes: Aleut, Yupik, Tlingit, AthabaskanLocationInuit communities are found in the Arctic, in the Northwest Territories, Labrador and Quebec in Canada, above treeline in Alaska (where people are called the Inupiat and Yupik), and in Russia (where people are called the Yupik people). In some areas, Inuit people are called “Eskimos” however many Inuit find this term offensive. The word “Inuit” means “the people” in the Inuktitut language.

LandThe Inuit originally made their home along the Alaskan coast, but migrated to other areas. It’s not surprising that the Inuit culture is quite different from other groups, when you consider the cold, dry, harsh environment of the Arctic. There are no trees, lots of deep snow and thick ice, and unique animals, such as seals, walrus, whales and caribou.

ClimateEverything about the lives of the Inuit is influenced by the cold tundra climate in which they live.

FamiliesFamily groups were the most important social unit in Inuit culture. They usually lived in family groups of around 5-6 people. Then each family would live and hunt together with 6-10 other families. Marriage was important for the Inuit people. Some marriages were arranged, but most were by choice. There was an obvious division

of labor in a marriage. Inuit men: built the houses, hunted, and fished. Women cooked, dressed the animal skins, made clothing, and looked after the children.

BuildingsIn the tundra, where Inuit communities are found, there are not many building materials. No trees grow in the tundra so houses can not be made from wood unless it is transported from elsewhere. However, during a large part of the year, the cold part, there is a lot of snow in the tundra. And it

turns out that snow can be a very good construction material. In the winter, Inuit lived in round houses made from blocks of snow called "igloos". In the summer, when the snow melted, Inuit lived in tent-like huts made of animal skins stretched over a frame. Although most Inuit people today live in the same community year-round, and live in homes built of other construction materials that have to be imported, in the past Inuit would migrate between a summer and winter camp which was shared by several families.

Clothing/FashionClothing of the Inuit people was mostly made out of animal skins and furs. They made the clothing as comfortable as possible while making sure that it was warm in cold weather and cool in the summer. Each tribe had different kinds of clothing designs, mostly to suit the weather where they lived.

Usually the Inuit wore clothing with two layers of caribou skin: an inner layer with the fur facing the skin, and an outer layer with the fur facing out.The Inuit people also made clothing from other animal skins, including dog, squirrel, marmot, fox, wolf, polar bear, bird skin, feathers, and sealskin. They sometimes used sea mammal intestines instead of hides, because they provided more resistance to water. Snow goggles, made from caribou antlers, provided protection from the cold,

but more importantly protection from snow blindness. Men and women both wore outer coats called 'parkas'. Women wore special large-hooded parkas called 'Amautis'. The large hood was used to carry babies and young children.

FoodIt took a lot of patience and skill, and an understanding of nature’s cycles, to be able to get enough food to survive all year in the Arctic. Inuit peoples used many different strategies: hunting, gathering wild plants, farming, and trading food between tribes. One thing was for certain; nothing was ever wasted, especially the animals. Often when an animal was killed, the hunter would give thanks to its spirit for giving up its life. And every single part of that animal was used, not just for food but for clothing, tools, containers and much more.

EducationThe Inuit believed in animism: all living and non-living things had a spirit. That included people, animals, inanimate objects, and forces of nature. When a spirit died, it continued living in a different world- the spirit world. The only people who had enough power to control the spirits were the p called the Shamans or 'Angakoks'. Shamans used charms and dances as a means to communicate with the spirit world.

Healing practicesBad weather, illnesses, and a bad hunt were all blamed on displeased spirits. There were certain guidelines that the Inuit were supposed to follow to make the spirits happy. They had rituals for hunting and eating food to deal with the spirits that lived in the animals. They had to pay a deep respect to the spirit of the animals that they hunted, so that the spirit reappeared in another animal that could sacrifice its life again. If they did not pay their respects to the spirit, the spirit would reappear as a demon. Humans also had souls that could be lost or stolen (causes of illness

and madness). The belief was that humans were made of three parts: a body, a name, and a soul. When a person died, it was only the body that died, the spirit and name could continue living in a new body. The names of dead relatives were given to babies, ensuring that the soul and name could continue living.

● Shamans powerful religious leaders) performed many of their healing rituals in ceremonial houses called 'Kashims'.

● Kashims were sometimes partially buried in the ground, and only the Shaman knew where the entrance was.

ArtsInuit art played an important role in their culture. They used resources that were available to them, such as, parts of animals, stone, and driftwood. Beliefs and traditions were a very important part of Inuit culture and often reflected a deep understanding and respect for nature. Their stories, dances, songs, art and spiritual rituals had a great deal of meaning and symbolism for everyone in the tribe.

Inuit elders enjoyed telling stories to the children, which really were lessons about their values, beliefs and knowledge of the land. Most masks were made out of driftwood or whalebone and used in telling stories or ceremonial dances. The masks represent encounters with the spirit world. They were made to show what spiritual leaders, like the Shamans, saw while they were in a trance.

The Inuit are well known for their beautiful stone carvings, which often show the creatures and characters from these stories. Inukshuks were large rock Cairns made from balancing rocks that were heaved to the surface by the frozen earth (permafrost). Carvings were also created. They were made out of stone, bone, and ivory (from walruses and whales). Most of their carvings were of Arctic animals, people, or spirits.

The CherokeeOther Southern Woodland Tribes: Pensacola, Chickasaw, Monacan, Choctaw

LocationThe Cherokee originally lived in parts of eight present-day southeastern states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. They mostly lived between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River (east to west) and the Ohio River and Northern Georgia/Alabama (north to south).

LandThe Great Smoky Mountains lay at the center of the Cherokee territory. Most Cherokee settlements were located in the river valleys on the edges of the Great Smoky Mountains. The hardwood forests in the range's lower elevations are among the most diverse in North America, and the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest that coats the range's upper elevations is the largest of its kind.

ClimateMost of the area has a humid subtropical climate, with hot humid summers and mild winters. The mountains do have a mountain temperate climate with snow in the winter. The area gets many thunderstorms, some of which can be severe with large hail and damaging winds. Tornadoes are possible, with strong or violent tornadoes occasionally occurring.

Families

The Cherokee people were organized into seven clans (family groups) according to the ancestry of the mother. Usually a woman lived with her husband, their children, her parents, her sisters, her sisters' children, and any unmarried brothers. Fathers felt close to their children but were not considered their blood relatives.

Women's rolesThe Cherokee were a matrilineal society, meaning that family lines were traced through the women of the tribe. Women controlled the fields and often worked behind the scenes to help make major decisions. They also often served as warriors in battle.

BuildingsA Cherokee town was made up of a council house, a town square, and 30-60 private homes. A fence made of vertical poles placed close together surrounded the town to protect the people from attack. The circular council house was large enough to hold all four hundred to five hundred citizens for council meetings and major religious ceremonies. The square was used for ceremonies, meetings, and social events.

It remains unclear whether traditional Cherokee dwellings consisted of a single building or multiple buildings. It is known, however, that the walls of the structures were formed by weaving small tree branches between support posts and then plastering clay and grass over the frame-work. The roofs were thatched with bark shingles.

Clothing/FashionDeerskin was used for clothing and moccasins. Members of the tribe who made the clothing sewed the garments together with bone needles and animal tendons. Cherokee men wore breechcloths—garments with front and back flaps that hung from the waist. In cold weather, they added deerskin leggings, fringed shirts, and robes made of fur or feathers. Beneath their deerskin dresses, women wore long, fringed petticoats woven from the wild hemp plant.

For festive occasions, the Cherokee wore turkey or eagle feathers, dyed porcupine quills, mulberry-root bark, or thread spun from the hair of bear or opossum. They also wore wristbands and armbands decorated with horn and shell rattle. Bones, shells, and copper were used to make jewelry.

Men often decorated their bodies and faces with paint or tattoos. They wore earrings and elongated their earlobes by cutting holes in them and inserting stones or bone in the holes. In early times, Cherokee men grew beards, sometimes braiding them in three sections. By the time the Europeans arrived, though, it was common for the men of the tribe to pluck out all of their facial hair.

Hairstyles for Cherokee men were quite distinctive. A man plucked out a two-inch-wide ring around a palm-sized section of hair on the crown of his heads. Then he pulled the long top section through a decorated, two-inch piece of hollowed deer antler, and painted any loose ends around the topknot with a thick, colored paste. The hair below the plucked ring was cut short. Women used bear grease to make their hair glossy and decorated it with yellow or red dust. They either wore it loose or tied it in a high knot.

FoodThe Cherokee farmed, hunted, and gathered their food. They grew beans, squash, sunflowers, melons, pumpkin, other food crops, and tobacco on their group farms. They gathered wild nuts, roots, and fruits from the surrounding countryside, and preserved food for winter months by drying it.

Women of the Cherokee tribe kept a kettle of soup or stew bubbling at all times. It was their method for using up leftovers. A particular favorite was a mixture of game or fowl, usually squirrel, rabbit, or turkey, mixed with corn, beans, and tomatoes.

Corn was the primary Cherokee crop. One variety was used for roasting, another for boiling, and a third for grinding into cornmeal. Ingredients such as dried beans and chestnuts were often added to cornmeal bread, which was topped with bear grease or oil from pounded nuts. Kanuche, a rich broth made by boiling crushed hickory nuts in water, could be mixed with corn or rice.

Fishing provided much food for the tribe. To catch fish, the men made use of hooks, nets, traps, bows, and even poison designed to stun the fish long enough for the people to simply pick up the ones they wanted. Although the Cherokee ate bear, turkey, rabbit, and other small game, deer was the most important source of animal food. When hunting deer, Cherokee men disguised themselves by wearing entire deerskins with antlers. This allowed them to sneak up on their prey without being noticed. Using blowguns, they could hunt small animals from a distance of 60 feet or more. A blowgun was made by hollowing out a long cane stem, 7 or 8 feet in length. Wood splints, balanced with feathers or thistles, were used as darts and blown through the hollow tube.

EducationFrom the time they were small, Cherokee children were taught lessons in bravery by having to endure hunger and pain. They also learned to respect the earth and other creatures and to honor their elders. A boy was instructed in male roles by his mother's brothers. From them he learned to hunt, make war, and carry on ceremonies. A girl learned to care for the house and children by

assisting her mother and her mother's sisters. She also learned to weave, garden, and make baskets.

Healing practicesThe Cherokee believed that illness came into the world when animals became angry with humans for intruding on their territory and killing them for food. Plants friendly to humans helped cure these animal-caused diseases. The root of white nettle, for instance, was used on open sores; a tea brewed from witch hazel bark was said to cure fevers; tobacco juice was used to treat bee stings and snake bites. Tobacco was looked upon as a powerful medicine—so powerful, in fact, that a lotion made from it could make unhappy wives fall in love with their husbands again.

The Cherokee believed that spiritual help promoted healing. Priests served as doctors; they knew all the proper prayers and chants and the correct methods of applying medicines. Healers sometimes massaged patients with hands warmed by sacred fire, told them to plunge into a cold stream immediately after a sweat bath, or scratched the victim's body and sucked out the cause of the illness.

ArtsThe Cherokee have always used legends to teach children about the history of the tribe and the proper way to live. Stories also explain the workings of the natural world.

The Cherokee were known for the beauty of their carvings and basketry. They made tools and pipes from materials such as stone and wood. Canoes were made of poplar. For baskets, the women used honeysuckle vine, cane, and a vine called wild hemp, and then painted the finished baskets with dyes from various plants and roots.

The Lakota (Sioux)

Other Plains Tribes: Comanche, Crow, Osage, Pawnee

NameLakota (pronounced lah-KOH-tah) is the tribe's name for itself and may mean “friends.” It comes from the Teton word Lakhota, sometimes translated as “alliance of friends.” Another meaning for the name is “those who consider themselves kindred.” The Sioux tribes were once given the name Nadowe-is-iw-ug, which means “little snakes” by their enemies. The French mispronounced the Ojibway word as Nadewisou and shortened it to “Sioux”, the name by which the tribes are collectively known. Because the name was intended as an insult, many of the people dislike being called Sioux.

LocationIn the mid-1700s, the Lakota moved from Minnesota to the Black Hills region of Nebraska, western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming, and eastern Montana.

LandWest of the Missouri River is the Great Plains. The landscape is dry and rugged, consisting of rolling hills, plains, ravines, and steep flat-topped hills called buttes. The Black Hills are also in this region. This range of low mountains covers 6,000 sq miles with peaks that rise from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above their bases.

ClimateThe Lakota lived mostly in a semi-arid climate. Much of the Great Plains has four distinct seasons, ranging from cold, dry winters to hot and semi-humid summers. It is not unusual for this area to have severe hot, dry spells in the summer with the temperature climbing above 100 °F. Winters are cold with January high temperatures averaging below freezing and low temperatures averaging below 10 °F. Overall precipitation is low, but summers do bring frequent, sometimes severe, thunderstorms with high winds, thunder, and hail. Severe weather in the form of blizzards and ice storms occur often during the winter.

OriginsBefore their move to the Great Plains in the mid-1700s, the Lakota were part of the Dakota tribe and lived as farmers in present-day Minnesota. War with another tribe divided the Dakota into three groups. The group that moved west onto the Great Plains came to be called the Lakota . The Lakota obtained horses from neighboring tribes (who had gotten them from Europeans) and adopted the Great Plains lifestyle. They depended on the buffalo for food, clothing, shelter, weapons, and household objects, and they followed the herds on their annual migrations.

The Lakota were once the most powerful tribe in North America, controlling a large area of the northern Great Plains. Lakota leaders, including Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, were among the best-known Natives of the nineteenth century, and the tribe was involved in two of the most famous incidents in American history, the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 and the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890.

EducationBecause the Lakota migrated, children learned about geography and plant life. Boys learned from a young age how to be successful competitors. At age three, they raced ponies and participated in games that tested their skill and strength; top spinning and javelin throwing were popular. Later, boys learned survival skills by undertaking long, difficult trips into the wilderness. Girls learned how to play a woman's role by helping the older women with housework, tending the gardens, keeping the fire going, making pottery and basketry.

BuildingsLike many tribes of the Great Plains, the Lakota lived in tepees, which were easy to assemble and carry. They arranged a framework of wooden poles into a cone shape and covered it with eight to twelve buffalo skins, carefully prepared and stitched together. During the winter, stones held the tepees in place. In the summer, they rolled up the covers to let in fresh air. Lakota men sometimes decorated the outsides of their tepees with paintings that recorded special events in their lives. The Lakota also built sweat lodges for ceremonial purposes. They believed that sweating rid the body and mind of impurities and made one ready to deal with the spirits.

FoodThe great buffalo herds provided food and other necessities for the Lakota . Their diet consisted mainly of buffalo and chokecherries.

Lakota men handled most of the hunting, and women butchered animals, prepared hides, and cooked or preserved meat. The Lakota also hunted deer, elk, and small game. They collected roots and berries and traded for food with farming tribes of the region.

Clothing/FashionThe Lakota were famous for their colorful clothing, mostly made of deer or elk hides. The men wore fringed buckskin shirts and leggings, decorated with brightly colored porcupine quills or locks of hair. They also wore buckskin moccasins with tough, buffalo-hide soles. They adorned themselves with earrings, armbands, and bear-claw necklaces. Younger men shaved the sides of their heads and let the hair in the middle grow long. Lakota warriors painted both themselves and their horses with fierce symbols and patterns and wore eagle feathers in their hair as a sign of their acts of bravery.

Women wore buckskin dresses that reached almost to the ankle over leggings that extended to the knee. Their clothing, too, was elaborately decorated with fringes, porcupine quills, or beads. They usually wore their long hair in two braids woven with pieces of cloth or beads. Lakota children of both genders had their ears pierced at age five or six, and from then on, they wore strings of colored beads as earrings.

Healing practicesMany Lakota spiritual leaders and healers learned of their future role when they were children, if a buffalo spoke to them in a dream. Such children were called Buffalo Dreamers. The Lakota people consulted them about a variety of problems, including illnesses and injuries. Healers made medicine from herbs, tree bark, wild fruits, and ground buffalo hooves. They also appealed to the spirits for help in diagnosing and curing illnesses by singing, dancing, and praying in special ways.

Vision questsWhen they reached puberty, all Lakota boys (and some girls) participated in a vision quest to connect with the supernatural being who would guide them through life. Young people first purified themselves in a sweat lodge. Afterward, they traveled to a sacred place, accompanied by two helpers who constructed a platform then left them alone. The person seeking a vision paced around on the platform, prayed, smoked a sacred pipe, and fasted (ate and drank nothing). The vision seeker kept careful track of everything he or she saw and heard during this time.After four days had passed, the helpers returned and brought the seeker back to camp. There spiritual leaders explained the vision and provided special songs, prayers, and objects that represented the seeker's connection with the supernatural. After completing a vision quest, a Lakota gained power and became an adult in the eyes of the tribe.

Rites of passageAt the onset of puberty, a girl was sent to a special hut outside the camp, where older women visited her to explain her adult responsibilities. A few weeks later, her father hosted a ceremony that celebrated her passage into womanhood. During the ceremony, the right side of the young woman's face and the part in her hair were painted red, a sacred color, and a feather was placed in her hair for good luck in producing children. When a young Lakota man participated in his first successful hunt or joined his first war party, his family celebrated his passage to manhood with a special ceremony and a feast.

Northwest Coast: ChinookOther Northwest Coast Tribes: Quileute, Haida, Willapa, Clatsop

Location and LandThe Chinook lived along the shore of the Columbia River in western Washington and Oregon. The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast at one time had the most densely populated areas of indigenous people. The land and waters provided rich natural resources through cedar and salmon.

ClimateHeavy precipitation and moderate temperatures define this area, considered a marine climate. This area is known for its mild climate, considerable fog, frequent cloud cover, and long-lasting drizzles in the winter. Summers are known for being sunny and dry.

EconomyIn the early years, fish were so plentiful and easily caught that gathering food took little time or effort. The tribe had more than enough for their needs and to share, so the Chinook economy revolved around trade. They traded excess fish (especially salmon) to other Native nations, some from as far away as the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. The people also scraped, stretched, and smoked skins of sea otter, beaver, elk, deer, and bear to make handsome hides. They bartered these hides, excess food, basket hats woven from cedar bark and spruce root, and other handmade objects. The Chinook also specialized in blubber and canoes. Both men and women acted as traders.

BuildingsThe Chinook usually lived in large, rectangular houses with cedar plank walls and steeply sloped roofs thatched with cedar bark. The houses stood about 8 feet high and were 20 to 60 feet long and 14 to 20 feet wide. Each house might shelter up to ten families. A Chinook village was usually made up of a long row of up to thirty houses.

The inside of each house featured an open living area with a fire in the center, surrounded by small rooms where the different families slept. The entrance and inner walls were decorated with colorful paintings. The floor of hard-packed earth was covered with woven mats, and beds were woven out of cedar bark or rushes.

When they left the village to hunt or trade, the Chinook sometimes built temporary mat shelters to protect themselves from the rain. They also set up these mat shelters near fishing areas in summer villages. The people constructed their temporary homes from two forked poles, which held up the roof pole, then covered this with matting. Sheds with cedar bark roofs stood nearby for drying fish. In very cold weather, some Chinook people built underground rooms to stay warm.

Clothing/FashionEarly Chinook wore little to no clothing. When they did, both men and women used only a small apron. In the winter, they covered themselves with fur blankets and robes made from the skins of dogs, muskrats, wood rats, sea otters, beavers, raccoons, rabbits, or mountain sheep. Women sometimes twisted strips of fur together with feathers to make winter dresses. Body armor made of layered elk skin, called clamons, was a popular clothing item the Chinook received in trade.

Both men and women had tattoos and ear and nose rings made of teeth, beads, or copper. Some put bones through their nose holes. Nose decorations distinguished the wealthy from the slaves. The Chinook also covered their hair and skin with fish oil. A chief adorned his hair with strips of deerskin decorated with dentalium (a type of mollusk) shells and placed two eagle feathers in his hair.

The Chinook flattened the heads of their children, but usually only upper-class Chinook did so. Flattened heads were considered beautiful. An infant was placed in a cradle, and a padded board was tied to its head.

Food Using dugout canoes up to 50 feet long, the Chinook caught

fish and sea mammals near the mouth of the Columbia River. In the early spring, they used long, curved blades to rake thousands of tiny smelt into their boats. Later in the year, they probed the river bottom with sharp poles and caught sturgeon weighing hundreds of pounds. The highlight of the fishing season came in late spring, when the Chinook salmon made its yearly spawning run up the Columbia.

The Chinook viewed salmon as sacred, and the people offered the year's first several salmon to the gods during special ceremonies. They caught many fish using nets and hooks, and they dried the meat for later use or for trade. Men used harpoons to hunt the sea lions and hair seals that sunned themselves near the mouth of the Columbia. The tribe also collected clams and oysters

and ate the occasional whale that washed up on shore. They used bows and arrows to hunt deer and elk.

Women gathered edible plants and fruits. Some of the plants that were abundant in the area were salmonberries, cranberries, currants, crab apples, cow parsnips, wild celery, cattails, skunk cabbage, and various roots.

EducationChildren in Chinook families were taught the value of hard work. Girls helped their mothers gather food, water, and wood and learned to make baskets and weave mats out of cattails. They also learned how to dry fish on racks or hang them from the rafters to smoke. Boys were taught to hunt, fish, and build houses. They learned the arts of tool making, canoe building, and making nets for fishing.

Healing practicesThe two types of Chinook shamans were highly respected, and sometimes feared, by the people. Doctors called keelalles provided medical aid. Etaminuas helped the souls of dying people travel safely to the land of the spirits. Children learned during their vision quests if they were destined to be healers. The chosen few trained for about five years and then began to practice on their own.

Healers often used “power sticks” smeared with grease and decorated with feathers and paint to rid people of evil spirits that were making them sick. Healers might spend several days chanting and beating the sticks on special diamond-shaped boards or on the frames of houses. Sometimes they discovered an object in a patient's body, such as a piece of wood or a stone that represented the evil spirit. These objects were destroyed in a special ceremony.

ArtsThe Chinook carved bowls and utensils from wood and animal horn. They decorated everyday items with designs of parallel lines made in wavelike or sawtooth patterns. Women created baskets from vegetation such as roots, bark, or rushes. They twined and bent several spruce root ropes into a shape, then wove in more ropes horizontally to create the sides of the basket. Designs might be animal shapes or geometric patterns. Men and women carved and painted crests (family symbols) on everyday objects, such as sticks, dance rattles, and boards.

They also carved wood to make totem poles. A totem was a representation, usually in the form of an animal, of the clan's ancestor. A clan is a group of families that traces back to a common ancestor. The people of the Pacific Northwest regarded the totems as heroic protectors of their clans. Because members of other clans married into the clan of a household, one house might be home to members of numerous clans. Each of those clan totems would be displayed on the totem pole in front of the longhouse.

Social classesChinook society was divided into three social classes: the upper class, commoners, and slaves. The small upper class included chiefs and their families, warriors, leading shamans, and traders. Although the majority, the commoners, could become wealthy by working, they rarely rose above the class into which they were born. Sometimes, however, an outstanding person, such as a great healer, was permitted to join the upper class.

Slaves were usually women and children, and they worked at cooking, canoeing, gathering food, and cutting wood. They sometimes helped the men with hunting and fishing. Upper-class Chinook purchased slaves from neighboring tribes, and they seized others in raids on their enemies.

Slaves could buy their freedom; some were only enslaved for a given number of years. Slaves were usually treated well; they lived in the house with their owners and ate the same food as the rest of the household, but in a separate place. Ordinary households may have had two or three slaves, whereas wealthy ones might have had as many as ten.

NavajoOther Southwest Tribes: Apache, Mojave, Zuni, Quechan

NameNavajo (pronounced NAH-vah-ho.). The name comes from a Tewa (Pueblo) Indian word, Navahu, meaning “large area of cultivated fields.” The Navajo call themselves Diné (“the People”).

Location and Land

They lived in the canyons, mountains, deserts, and forests of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah (the 4 corners).

ClimateThe Navajo Nation is in an arid climate, located on the Colorado Plateau. Being higher than the lower desert, the climate is cooler. The annual precipitation is very low, in some places less than 10 inches. The Navajo Nation is known for having very cold winters and very hot summers, with an average temperature of about 40ºF to 55ºF.

EconomyTraditionally, Navajo farmers did not irrigate their fields; their seeds could be sustained by underground water. Since the seventeenth century, sheep herding has been a vital part of Navajo life (sheep came from trade with Europeans). Sheep provided meat, their tendons made bowstrings, and their wool was woven into clothing and blankets.

FamiliesNavajo family units were made up of two or more families centered on a mother and her daughters. The unit was bound together by ties of marriage and close relationships. Women held an important social position.

Navajo society is based on clans (groups of people who claim descent from a common ancestor). Each Navajo person is associated with four different unrelated clans. Among the Navajo , a person's ancestry is traced through the mother's side of the family and determines the clan to which a person belongs. A child must marry outside his or her clan. Navajo relationships are often hard for outsiders to understand, as the people have different terms for aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives.

BuildingsTraditional Navajo houses are called hogans. Older versions, built around a wooden post frame, were cone-shaped. Beginning in the mid-1800s, log cabins with beehive-shaped log roofs became more popular. Usually the roofs, and sometimes the walls, were covered with packed earth. A smoke hole was left at the center of the roof. When wood was scarce, hogans were built of stones held together with mud mortar.

Clothing/FashionEarly Navajo clothed themselves in breechcloths (flaps of material that cover the front and back and are suspended from the waist), leggings, skirts, and blankets that were either woven from cedar bark or yucca plant material or made of fur. Animal skins were used to make moccasins with braided yucca soles.

FoodWhen they first moved to the Southwest between the ninth and twelfth centuries, the Navajo hunted and gathered wild vegetation. They learned from the Pueblo Indians how to grow corn, beans, and squash. The Spaniards, who came in the 1600s, taught the Native Americans to grow wheat and oats and to herd sheep and goats.

Healing practicesFor the Navajo , sickness is an indication of disharmony. Curing ceremonies treat the cause of the ailment rather than the symptoms. When a person gets sick, he or she normally goes to a person called a stargazer or hand trembler, who tells the patient the cause of the illness. The stargazer then recommends that the person see a special medicine person and take part in a particular ceremony. Illnesses can be caused by the accidental or intentional breaking of one of the society's many taboos, by contact with a ghost, or by the spell of a witch.

The medicine person recommended by the stargazer is known as a hataali (“singer”). The hataali conducts a ceremony in which both the patient and his or her relatives participate. The ceremony may last nine nights and include the performance of more than five hundred songs. The singer is sometimes assisted by dancers who wear masks representing appropriate spirit. A sand painting, created during the ritual, is destroyed at the completion of the ceremony. (Sand painting is a Navajo and Pueblo tradition in which sands of different colors are used to create a ceremonial design.) During a ceremony, the healer may employ objects with special powers, medicines made from plants, and lengthy prayers. Ideally, curing rituals are followed by the singing of the Blessingway, a prayer to restore harmony that has been called the backbone of the Navajo healing system.

ArtsNavajo women in traditional times were known for their excellent pottery, including ladles, jars with pointed bottoms, and decorated bowls. They also made coiled baskets, food containers, and water bottles. The women learned to weave from the Pueblo people and produced rugs and blankets with intricate, unique designs that they colored with natural dyes. Navajo craftspeople are also renowned for their unique silver and turquoise creations.

PubertyYoung girls undergo one of the oldest ceremonies of the Navajo culture, the kinaaldá. The two-day ritual takes place after a girl goes through puberty and is designed to teach her lessons she will need in adult life. The girl must perform several exhausting runs to ensure her physical conditioning and endurance. In addition, she must grind by hand some of the cornmeal and wheat she will use to prepare a traditional cake; the chanted prayers of a medicine man accompany the process. Near the end of the ceremony, a female relative massages the girl's body to make it more beautiful. The girl then prays over a group of young children. Following the ritual, she is accepted into the community as an adult and is considered to be ready for marriage.

For boys, puberty is often marked by the deepening of the voice. Their puberty ceremony is similar to that recorded in oral history for Monster Slayer and Born for Water, Changing Woman's twin sons. During the ritual, boys sing and yell as they run to the east. Their skin is covered with cornmeal. Participating in giveaways and learning proper behavior for men are also

important activities. Other parts of the ceremony include fasting, sweating, and learning songs. Following this celebration, boys take their place as adults in the tribe and assume male responsibilities.

Courtship and marriageTraditionally, relatives arranged Navajo marriages after the boy reached the proper age. An expensive gift (sheep or horses) was often given to the girl's family by the boy's family. When a couple married, the grandmother of the bride presented the new couple with a basket of cornmeal at the wedding site. The bride and groom then exchanged a pinch of cornmeal, from which they received the strength and blessing of the spirit world. Some couples still observe this custom during the wedding ceremony.

Newly married couples usually built their houses near the home of the wife's mother. This allowed the wife and her children to have close contact with the maternal grandmother. A large space was left between the homes, however, because a man was forbidden to look at or speak to his mother-in-law.

Code TalkersAfter Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the U.S. government declared war on Japan and entered World War II (1939–45). Americans discovered that the Japanese were eavesdropping on the U.S. Marines and decoding their secret messages. In early 1942, a non-Native man who had been brought up at the Navajo Nation suggested that the military could use Navajo men to devise unbreakable codes. Other than fifty thousand Navajo, fewer than thirty people in the world knew the Navajo language; none were Japanese.

Young Navajo men were recruited as Code Talkers. Because the Navajo language lacked words for modern military terms, Navajo Code Talker Carl Gorman (1907–1998) and others worked out a code in which English military words were represented by different Navajo words. For example, Navajo words for different birds were used for names of planes. When the Japanese figured out Marine radio operators were speaking Navajo, they forced a captured soldier who spoke the language to translate. Although he knew a term such as chay-da-gahi meant turtle, he did not know that “turtle” meant “tank” to the code talkers.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed August 14 as National Navajo Code Talkers Day. Most Code Talkers who were still alive did not partake in the celebrations, however, because they did not believe in glorifying war. By 2011, only one of the original code talkers was still living.

Geography and Tribe Literacy

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