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Navajo Wisdom: Treasures Are Found in the Oral History of the Navajos
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10699 |
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CULTURE
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1 / 1986 |
5,168 Words |
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Ethelou Yazzie
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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."
Now, as television and radio penetrate into the most remote corners and the highest mountain settlements of the Navajo nation, and have their impact on us all, it is important to record the Navajo stories before the advent of electronic media, and its insidious effect, transforms them once again.
To produce the book Navajo History, I collected information from a number of qualified people--trained people--who had spent many hours in lessons from wise medicine men. These people are recognized by the community as having lived their lives as close as possible to the ways of the Holy People.
It took two years, long hours, and many conversations. I fell in love with the prehistory period, and wished passionately to be able to talk to the Holy People themselves. I felt immensely privileged to work with
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