Along the Navajo Trail: A Look at Culture, Tradition and Craft

25-May-2011

Change comes slowly to the Navajo. In 1864 they were forced to march 300 miles, called the “Long Walk,” from their homelands to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where those who survived the terrible trek were never provided adequate food or shelter. Conditions were so appalling that four years later the government created the Navajo Reservation, and they were allowed to return to their lands. Tenaciously traditional, the Navajo have been wards of the United States government for nearly 150 years. 26,000 square miles of desert in the American Southwest four-corners area constitute the greater Navajo Reservation, with a present population of about 175,000. During these years they have maintained their religion and culture, raised sheep and farmed, and produced beautiful Navajo crafts.

Trading posts were set up throughout Navajo lands in the early days. These were isolated places where the Indians could purchase supplies and tools. Traders developed a credit- barter system whereby a Navajo could place certain items, chiefly jewelry, in pawn until it was time to sell wool, or sheep, then the bartered items could be redeemed. These traders were the ones who established outside markets for the rugs and jewelry made by the Navajo (the weaving done primarily by the women and jewelry done by the men). This relationship between the trading posts and the Navajo has been an integral part of the Navajo story.

Many changes have occurred in the Navajo Nation in the intervening years, but while adapting to the modern world, the Navajo continue to live according to the “Navajo Way.” Visit and learn about the Navajo at the Museum of the Americas, 216 Fort Worth Hwy., Weatherford, TX. Free admission, 10am-5pn, Tues—Sat. 817/341-8668; www.museumoftheamericas.com.

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