The Navajo Beauty Way Ceremony In beauty may I walk All day long may I walk Through the returning seasons may I walk Beautifully I will possess again Beautifully birds Beautifully joyful birds On the trail marked with pollen may I walk With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk With dew about my feet may I walk With beauty may I walk With beauty before me may I walk With beauty behind me may I walk With beauty above me may I walk With beauty all around me may I walk In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk It is finished in beauty It is finished in beauty
The Traditional Sandpainting Ceremony Navajo people believe the universe to be delicately balanced. Only man can upset it, causing disaster and/or illness. Each illness or disaster has a particular part that is related to a portion of Navajo history. Balance is restored in the universe by healing the offender with changes, herbs, prayers, songs and sand paintings. The Shaman (Medicine Man) goes to the offenders hogan. Restoration begins with the chanting accompanied by rattles and recounting adventures of Navajo heroes. The sandpainting is begun on a bed of clean white sand on the dirt floor, Mother Earth. Sandpaintings are created with an opening facing east the same direction as the door to the hogan, to make it difficult for evil to enter. In the sandpainting design itself, the rainbow yei is used to provide protection for the design. Each design and figure must be produced carefully and in a knowledgeable way, using only the five sacred colors of sands. Every detail must be completed with exactness, or the harmony of the universe will not be restored, but worsened. Decorative variations can be left out, but never introduced to a ceremonial sandpainting. Some symbolic designs provide additional power or strength i.e., buffalo horns added to increase the dosage. When the sandpainting is completed, the patient is seated in its center. The Medicine Man then touches a particular place on the painting and relays the medicine by touching the patient, restoring harmony and health. The sandpainting is then erased and swept onto a blanket. Before sunset, it is carried outside and blown into the wind, returning it to Mother Earth so that trapped evil forces will not escape.
Navajo Creation Story Once more they listened and heard it louder still, very near. A moment later four mysterious beings appeared. These were White Body, Blue Body, Yellow Body and Black Body. The gods told the people that they would come back in twelve days. On the morning of the Twelfth Day the people washed themselves well. Then the women dried their skin with yellow cornmeal, the men with white cornmeal. Soon they heard the distant call, shouted four times, of the approaching gods. When the gods appeared, Blue Body and Black Body each carried sacred buckskin. White Body carried two ears of corn one yellow and one white. The gods laid one buckskin on the ground with the head to the west, and on this they placed the two ears of corn with their tips to the east. Over the corn they spread the other buckskin with its head tot he east. Under the white ear they put the feather of a white eagle; under the yellow ear the feather of a yellow eagle. Then they told the people to stand back and allow the wind to enter. Between the skins the white wind blew from the east and the yellow wind from the west. While the wind was blowing, eight gods called the Mirage People came and walked around the objects on the ground four times. As they walked, the eagle feathers, whose tips stuck out from the buckskins, were seen to move. When the Mirage People finished their walk, the upper buckskin was lifted. The ears of corn had disappeared; a man and a woman lay in their place. The white ear of corn had become the man, the yellow ear had become a woman: First Man and First Woman. It was the wind that gave them life, and it is the wind that comes out of our mounts now that gives us life. When this ceases to blow, we die.
Ceremonial Baskets The first step in creating a ceremonial basket is to harvest the willow.
Once the willow is harvested, the reeds are split into smaller strands.
The strands are died using plant and vegetable dies and then they are woven into a basket. The designs woven into the baskets tell a story. Sometimes the story is about the person the basket is being made for, but most often it is a traditional story straight out of Navajo culture and myth.
Placing the Stars Basket First Man decided to give the people light at night by carefully placing glowing pieces of star-rock in the sky. After he had created the North Star and designed and built several other constellations, First Man was interrupted by Coyote, the trickster, who wanted to help but lacked First Man s patience. Stealing the buckskin bag of mica, Coyote placed three large red stars for himself and then blew the remaining pieces of rock-mica into the nighttime sky, creating the Milky Way, a reminder of the disorder resulting from his impatience. Divided into two parts that represent the opposing forces of night and day and of good and evil, this story basket visually balances Coyote s misdeeds against First Man s good deeds, restoring balance to the world.
Changing Bear Woman Basket Changing Bear Woman married Coyote after he killed a giant to win her hand. Her brothers, though unhappy to hear of her marriage, agreed to take Coyote hunting with them. But Coyote behaved badly, fighting over a mountain sheep that one of the brothers had killed. So they sent him home ahead of them to deliver the meat. On the way, Coyote gambled with the Otter People and insulted the Cliff People who caught and killed him. When the brothers returned home without Coyote, his distraught wife used the knowledge he had given her to turn herself into a bear and terrorize those who had killed him. Ultimately, she even killed her brothers, except for the youngest, who prompted by the wind, outran her and destroyed her hidden heart and lungs, the key to her powers.