Navajo Healers, Sand Paintings Keep Tribal Traditions Alive

By Lauren Monsen

As the second-largest Native American tribe of North America, the Navajo people of the southwestern United States are inheritors of a rich cultural legacy centered on oral traditions and customs passed down for hundreds of years. The tribe's spiritual beliefs, collectively known as the Navajo Way, emphasize the importance of preserving and restoring balance and harmony with nature.

According to Robert Johnson, a cultural specialist at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona, sacred ceremonies performed by tribal healers are essential in perpetuating the Navajo Way. These ceremonies can be performed for a variety of reasons - either to improve the physical or mental health of an ailing patient, or to mark significant milestones in a person's life - but two things remain constant: the rhythmic prayer-chants and the creation of geometrically precise sand paintings that are usually featured in Navajo rites.

Although the Navajo Reservation - a semi-autonomous tribal homeland occupying northeastern Arizona, the southeast portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico - has a population of about 300,000, only a handful of its residents have been trained as medicine men or medicine women. "The number of medicine people has declined dramatically in recent years," Johnson told America.gov. "It's a concern."

To help reverse that decline, tribal elders created an apprenticeship program in 2002, aimed at recruiting more young Navajos to learn the ceremonies performed by traditional healers. Mastering the tribe's complex rites is a lifelong process, Johnson said. Although some of the program's apprentices have now become full-fledged medicine people, "many youngsters are moving away from the reservation to pursue jobs and college degrees," Johnson said. "They move to cities and border towns to achieve the American dream" of career success and home ownership.

ANCIENT CEREMONIES OF THE NAVAJO WAY

Navajo medicine people (hataa'lii in the Navajo language) serve not only as healers but as historians with extensive knowledge of tribal traditions and mythology. A shortage of healers has led to the extinction of some of the more obscure ceremonies, said Johnson, "but there are still enough medicine people on the reservation to perform the four major ceremonies" that form the backbone of the Navajo Way, as well as the Blessing Way ceremony that concludes each ritual.

Those four ceremonies are the Mountaintop Way and the Grandfathers' Ceremony (nine-day events performed in winter), the Enemy Way (a four-day or two-day event performed in summer), and finally, the Lightning Way or Big Wind Way (a five-day or two-day event performed year-round). Sand paintings are used in the winter ceremonies and in the year-round ceremonies, but not in the Enemy Way, Johnson explained.

All four rituals are designed to address various disorders or imbalances, although the Enemy Way has a more specialized function. An ancient rite once used to bless warriors returning from battle, it is now performed to help Navajo soldiers returning from combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, particularly in cases of post-traumatic stress. It is also used, more generally, to ward off any contamination resulting from contact with hostile outsiders.

"When a person gets sick, a diagnostician decides which ceremony is appropriate," Johnson said. Sometimes the diagnostician is the healer who will perform the ceremony, but not always. Although many Navajos seek the assistance of their tribe's medicine people, others prefer modern-day hospitals on the reservation, and some combine both Navajo and Western methods to promote health and well-being.

Elaborate sand paintings, which often accompany traditional rites, reflect the Navajo Way's emphasis on balance and harmony. The images - made from colored sand - will vary according to which ceremony is performed, but certain patterns appear with great frequency. Four symmetrical elements symbolize the four directions (north, south, east and west), and sacred figures (known as the Holy People in Navajo mythology) are invoked to confer blessings. (Circular heads denote male deities, and square heads denote females.) Emblems such as plants or animals underscore the Navajos' close relationship with the natural world.

HOW THE PAST RENEWS THE PRESENT

Because of their elevated role, sand paintings are closely guarded against defilement, so they are immediately destroyed as soon as a Navajo ceremony is completed. However, tribal artists can make a living by creating permanent versions of these sand paintings; the artists will deliberately alter one essential detail so that sacred Navajo imagery is never fully revealed to an outsider's gaze. These modified sand paintings have become highly desirable collectors' items, often selling for hundreds of dollars in galleries and museum gift shops.

Just as sand paintings are considered sacrosanct, so too are other aspects of Navajo rituals. Before a healing ceremony takes place, the patient must undergo a purifying sweat bath designed to rid the body of toxins. "You have to cleanse yourself first," said Johnson. "The process usually takes half a day."

Other Navajo rites, signifying major life events, are mostly joyful occasions. For example, "a Blessing Way is performed for expectant mothers when they're about eight months along, to protect them during childbirth and ensure the baby's safe delivery," Johnson said. Early childhood is also celebrated: Navajo healers typically perform a baby's "First Laugh" ceremony, followed by a "First Footprint" ceremony when the child starts walking. Puberty ceremonies - different ones for boys and girls - take place when youngsters are 12 or 13 years old.

"Between the ages of 16 and 18, young Navajos have a coming-of-age ceremony that marks the passage into adulthood," Johnson said. When couples marry, he added, the traditional Navajo wedding ceremony is performed by a person of high status in the bride's family.

The Navajo Way recognizes four stages of life: childhood, adolescence, early to mid-adulthood and old age. Death rites do not exist in Navajo culture, but the Navajo conception of the afterlife is fairly similar to that of other faiths and societies. According to Eunice Kahn, archivist at the Navajo Nation Museum, "we believe that our spirits will eventually join those of our ancestors."

As the heirs to a unique culture, today's Navajos are coping with the demands of the modern world while also striving to maintain their cherished traditions. "During the week, many people work in border towns" near the reservation, Johnson said. "On weekends, they return to the reservation and immerse themselves in tribal culture." For tribe members, practicing the Navajo Way reinforces their sense of identity - and perpetuates a spiritual code that not only sustained their forebears, but promises to guide future generations as well.

For more information about Native American culture, see "American Indian History, Culture ( http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2007/December/20071220085040IHecuoR0.4121363.html )."

Source: U.S. Department of State

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