My Life in the Southwest
One morning I woke
up and looked out of my hogan and threw bread to the deer and antelope
and heard reptiles like rattlesnakes. For breakfast we eat deer and
coyotes. Today it is 75°F to 80°F in the summer. I
went outside and I got juice from cactus for a drink. Cactus
grows 50 feet tall. Next I rode my horse to the Grand Canyon and
saw sheep. I stopped and got a drink at the Colorado River.
The Colorado River separates the Grand Canyon. Next I went back to
my hogan. I made a garden and planted squash, corn, beans and melons.
I rode up to the dry mountains and hills. I rode one quarter of 25,000
square miles and saw the San Francisco Mountains. Also, there are
deserts, plains, valleys, and small mountain ranges in this region.
It is winter and it is 41°F (5°C). I found wildcats and scorpions,
birds flying north, gila monsters, poinsonous lizards, rattlesnakes and
other things like tarantulas in my travels. You should come and see
the Southwest because it is a good place to live in a hogan.
Strong Hogans
Is your house made
out of mud, wooden poles, and tree bark with supported poles? Does
each of your doors open to the east to welcome the sun every morning?
Well the Navajo Indians live in a hogan in the Southwest made of mud, wooden
poles, tree bark and support poles. The hogans are cone shaped and
circular with a flat roof. The hogans are 6-sided using forked sticks.
The hogans have sticks covered with brush. Women sand paint pictures
on the floor. The hogans are always one room. Some of the hogans
had tables, chairs, beds and burning wood stoves. They always brought
the weaving indoors in the winter. Every hogan is always spread apart.
The Southwest is cool to live in because you can see the Grand Canyon from
my house. |
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Navajo Clothing
Did you know that the
Navajo men and women usually wore matching outfits? Other times the
women wore deer skin dresses and also women borrowed the Mexican style
of dresses. The women wore wool dresses with two blankets stitched
together at their shoulders. The women carried their babies in cradle
boards, sometimes strapped to their backs. Later women traded calico
and made big full skirts. The men wore breech cloths and leggings.
Their pants end half way between their knees and ankles. They decorated
the seams of the pants with silver buttons. They also wore cotton
pants, concho belts, and velvet or crushed velvet shirts. Also, men
wore traditional head dresses. They got their clothing from deer
skin and Mexico. Men and women wore moccasins. In the 1800s
Navajo men borrowed Mexican style blankets and draped them over one shoulder.
The men and women wore hair buns. Women also dressed in cotton shirts
and traditional velvet or crushed velvet coin buttons. The women
wore two belts at the same time, one's woven, and one is leather.
Do you wear these things, because the Navajo men and women did. |
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Food Pictograph Writing
One day two brothers
left camp. It took three days on horse to get to the mountains and
they saw a mountain lion on a clear, sunny day. The two brothers
had their guns and missed the mountain lion and called for help.
The two brothers saw deer, antelope and coyotes, shot them and hung them
up. It was night time and it was raining. In the rain we saw
deer tracks. In the morning it took seven days and six nights to
get back through the mountains on horse. The rain started, and then
we got home and started a fire on a clear, sunny day. The Navajo
also plant beans, melons, corn and squash. They raised sheep and
horses. |
Sources
Book: Osinski, Alice. The Navajo.
1987.
Online database: "Arizona." Britannica
Elementary Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
School Edition. 12/1/2006.
Web site: "Navajo." http://www.mce.k12tn.net/indians/reports2/navajo.htm.
12/20/2006.
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