3. Navajo tribe is the largest tribe of North
American Indians.
Over 1,000 years ago they began to travel
south and reached the southwestern United
States. Long ago the ancestors lived in
Northwestern Canada and Alaska.
Navajo people call themselves Diné, a term
from the Navajo language that means people.
4. Until contact with Pueblos and the Spanish, the
Navajo were largely hunters and gatherers.
The tribe adopted crop farming techniques
from the Pueblo peoples, growing
mainly corn,beans, and squash.
When the Spanish arrived, the Navajo began
herding sheep and goats.
5. In addition, a small group
of Mescalero Apaches, long
The Long Walk enemies of the Navajo, had
Beginning in the spring of
1864, around 9,000 Navajo
been relocated to the area
men, women and children were
forced to embark on a trek of over
resulting in conflicts.
300 miles (480 km) to Fort
Sumner, New Mexico for
internment at Bosque Redondo.
The internment at Bosque Redondo
was a failure for many reasons as
the government failed to provide
an adequate supply of
water, wood, provisions, and
livestock for 4,000–5,000
people. Large scale crop failure
and disease were also endemic
during this time, as well as raids by
other tribes and civilians.
6. The name “Navajo” comes from the late 18th
century via the Spanish (Apaches de)
Navajó "(Apaches of) Navajo", which was
derived from theTewa navahū "fields adjoining
a ravine". The Navajo call themselves Diné.
Traditionally, like other Apacheans, the Navajo
were semi-nomadic from the 16th through the
20th centuries.
7. Silversmithing is an Navajo came to the
important art form among southwest with their own
Navajo. Atsidi Sani (c. 1830– weaving traditions;
c. 1918) is considered to be however, they learned to
the first Navajo silversmith. weave cotton on upright
He learned silversmithing looms from Pueblo peoples.
from a Mexican man The first Spaniards to visit
called Nakai Tsosi ("Thin the region wrote about
Mexican") around 1878 and seeing Navajo blankets. By
began teaching other the 18th century the Navajo
Navajos how to work with had begun to import Bayeta
silver. red yarn to supplement local
black, grey, and white
wool, as well as wool dyed
with indigo.
