Navajo

These two hopeful contestants are busy drumming up support for the annual Navajo Nation Pagent.

The winner will have to champion the traditional Navajo culture, dress and language, show how to tackle todays problems in society, like bullying and alcoholism, and be the most efficient at butchering a sheep!

We spent three weeks touring the Navajo Reservation visiting events organised by the Navajo, for the Navajo. Parades, Pageants, Fried Bread contests, Pow Wows and Rodeos. All the while we felt we were total outsiders, no other tourists were present. It seemed once you enter this nations local social circles you are transferred to another America, an America without the pale skins – a Navajo America, save for the few obligatory fast-food stops like Burger King, MacDonald’s or Wendy’s!

Facts

  • Location: The Navajo Nation is an Indian Reservation within the United States of America. It occupies portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
  • Population: Around 400,000
  • Religion: Indigenous Religion, Native American Church (Peyote Religion created in 1900 – a mix of Native American beliefs and Christianity), Christian.
  • Language: Navajo, English and Spanish.

Matriarchal feature:

  • Children belong to the mother’s clan (matrilineal name)
  • Motherhood is central to Navajo culture. The earth, fields, corn and sheep, and seventeen sacred mountains are all referred to as mother. Three of their most central mythological characters are female figures: Changing Woman, Spider Woman, and Salt Woman.
  • When a girl reaches puberty, a special ceremony is held which involves tasks of running and endurance.
  • Navajo Beauty Pagents empower girls to keep their matrilineal practises and to become ambassadors of their Nation.
  • Traditionally, women owned livestock, dwellings, and planting and grazing areas.
  • Once married, a Navajo man follows his bride to live on her families land. In cases of separation, the man has to move out (matrilocal).
  • Inheritance of family property traditionally goes to daughters (matrilineal inheritance).