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Introduction to the Navajo People and Nation |
 | Originally a nomadic tribe that migrated from northern Canada and Alaska. |
| Settled in what is now northern New Mexico around 1500 A.D. |
| Lived in scattered family camps rather than villages. |
| Learned weaving and other crafts from other tribes in the area. The Navajos are good at assimilating ideas from the surrounding cultures and improving on them. |
Contact with Anglos
| 1600's -- Joined with the Pueblo tribes in the area to resist the growing Spanish occupation. |
| From the Spanish, learned the art of jewelry-making, and were introduced to sheep and horses. |
| 1846 -- Came into contact with the United States government. |
| 1864 -- Colonel Kit Carson led the U.S. Army on a crackdown on the Navajos, burning crops, killing livestock and rounding up the people, marching them in a "Long Walk" across New Mexico to Bosque Redondo, near the Texas border. Thousands of Navajos lost their lives in the walk and in the years of hardship at Bosque Redondo. |
| 1868 -- Were allowed to return to their beloved land four years later. |
The Navajos Today
| 17 million acres -- Size of the reservation, found in northeast Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southeastern Utah--about the size of West Virginia. |
| #1 -- Navajos live on the largest reservation in the United States. |
| 180,000 -- Population of the Navajo Reservation today. |
| Self-governed -- The tribe has its own government, including a president and tribal council, their own police, court system, and jails. |
| Still traditional -- Many still hold to the traditional Navajo ways, utilizing medicine men--or "singers"-- who commune with the spirit world to bring individuals back into "harmony" with creation. |
| Native American Church -- Another influence on the reservation. An Indian-only cult that uses the drug peyote (PAY-OH-TEE) as a sacrament. |
| The Navajos need the Gospel of Jesus Christ today more than ever! |
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