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Navajo Wisdom: Treasures Are Found in the Oral History of the Navajos
| Article
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10699 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1986 |
5,168 Words |
| Author
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Ethelou Yazzie
Dr. Ethelou Yazzie, author of Navajo History, was the Director
of the Rough Rock School Board, Demonstration School Board,
Demonstration School and Navajo Curriculum Center, Chinle,
Arizona, when she delivered this paper at the fourth
International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences in
1975. It was published by the International Cultural
Foundation Press (New York, 1975) in Volume II of the
proceedings of that conference. Reprinted by permission. |
Even though there are some two hundred Native American tribes in the United States, they share the same basic beliefs. Their traditions are similar--their lessons the same. Because the Native American lived and lives close to the earth, different environments and climates have had their effect on the stories.
Each environment produces a different kind and type of character. The Alaskan Eskimo birds take the roles that Navajo animals take in our oral history. Navajo clan systems developed geographically, and the clans are place names. Each clan has a family story that concerns the relations the family had in prehistory with the Holy People.
Though geographically in a similar environment to ours today, the Hopi clans are animal and astronomic, i.e., the bear clan, the moon clan, while ours are place names. Perhaps to emphasize the locations of the Navajo families during a time of nomadic travel from place to place (and from world to world).
The traditional truth and history of the Navajo people is woven through our daily life as the design in one of our rugs. The colors and the patterns of the stories are inseparable from the fabric of life itself. And the stories were and are transmitted as part of the daily life. The conversations and stories that go on during the daily process define our way of life, even as we live it.
The stories and traditions were developed and were repeated, with no thought that someday it would all be history. As today, there is no thought that as such, we are living history, but there is an awareness that this is the way things are done--the way things have always been done. There is one right way--the way of harmony and beauty.
A culture that relies predominately on oral history to continue its tradition finds that whenever stories are told, they are changed by the personality of the story teller. Except for the sacred ceremonies themselves, we must assume that the stories recounted in Navajo history have been elaborated over the years, expanded, and otherwise changed from the original accounts.
We must also assume that some stories are lost forever. A contemporary wise woman from a Canadian border tribe remarked recently, "Maybe we should let the stories die. They may have ended their usefulness."
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