Traditional staples of the Navajo diet are mutton stew, fry bread, tortillas, fried potatoes w/corned beef and spam, and do they love coffee.  When a Navajo visitor enters your home at mealtime it is assumed that you (the host) will automatically make a place for them at the table.  Even when it is not mealtime, coffee is always a welcome and expected beverage of choice of the Navajo adults.

Other well-known Navajo foods include kneel-down bread and ground cake which are prepared from maize, honey, syrup, and sometimes wheat.  Both are considered great delicacies and a good way for the host to express hearty welcome to his tired and weary friend.

In the old times, the eating of fish or fowl was considered taboo by many due to the religious beliefs about the fish and birds.  Even today this is shunned by culture-conscious Navajos.

Dress

The earliest recorded apparel of the Navajo Tribe was made of shredded and woven bark.  Later the People learned to prepare hides, and they adapted this more suitable clothing into the Navajo lifestyle.  Later the skins were cut and made into crude trousers and jackets for the men.

With the advent of weaving, the tribal dress began to become more varied.  This  style was standard until the People followed the Spanish men in dress, but continued to wear the shoulder blanket familiar to many of the Southwestern tribes and people of Mexico.

Later, the tribe became more acculturated as some people adapted the costume of the Anglo settlers.  Down through the years, the dress of the Navajo has always been adapted to fit their current cultural setting (as have the People themselves).

Today, the Navajo men wear very western looking clothing, including boots and jeans with cowboy hats.  Women prefer the fashions of the Anglo world, though the older women still the more traditional velveteen blouse, pleated calico skirt, accompanied with a squash blossom necklace and other silver and turquoise jewelry.