Navajo Tribe Research Paper

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Usually Indians are known for their great peace or lack of it. However, the Navajo are known for their amazing weaving. The Navajo Indians were nomads and eventually settled in an area of southwestern states (Santella 5-6). The tribe began sometime in the 1100s (Carey). It is the largest tribe of American Indians today (Navajo Indians). The Navajos call themselves Diné which means “the people” in their language. They received their name from the Spanish who called them the Apachu de Nabajo or “Apache of the planted field” which was simply shortened to Navajo (Santella 5). The Navajo still exist today on a large reservation known as Navajoland (10). The Navajo Indians are an interesting tribe with a fascinating background including their geography, culture, myths, history, and where they are today. The Navajo Indians were located in the Southwest. The main states they were located in are Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah (Santella 10). As shown in Figure 1, this covered a large area. Once they had arrived at that area, the Pueblo Indians had already settled there. At first,…show more content…
Their current reservation is 27,000 square miles. There are more than 250,000 members in the tribe today which makes them the largest Native American tribe today. Their reservation includes the Mesa Verde region because of the four sacred mountains which they were originally supposed to find in their tribe creation story (“Navajo”). During the creation story, the Navajo were told to find and live between four mountains. These are the mountains that they found which they consider sacred (Santella 7). Many Navajo make money from selling rugs, jewelry, and other crafts since people tend to buy authentic creations (“Navajo”). “Most Navajos speak English and participate in the broader American economy, but they have also maintained their own language, customs, and religion” (“Navajo”). Today’s Navajo have connected modern America and their tribe’s

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