Navajo

Lore & Background

The Navajo are speakers of a Na-Dené Southern Athabaskan language. The term Navajo comes from Spanish missionaries and historians; the people refer to themselves as Diné, meaning '(the) people'. Their language comprises two geographic, mutually intelligible dialects and is closely related to the languages of the Apache. Initially hunters and gatherers, they later adopted farming from Pueblo people, growing corn, beans, and squash, and herding sheep and goats from the Spaniards. Sheep became a form of currency and familial status, and women wove wool into blankets and clothing of artistic expression. Spanish records from the mid-16th century describe trade between Pueblo and Athabaskan groups. By the 1640s, the Spanish used the term Navajo to refer to the Diné. During the 1670s, the Diné lived in Dinétah, about 60 miles west of the Rio Chama Valley. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, patterns of peace-making, raiding, and trading among the Navajo, Spaniards, Apache, Comanche, and Hopi continued. The internment was disastrous due to lack of water, wood, provisions, and livestock, as well as disease and raids.

Reader's Guide

The Navajo are significant as the second largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, with a reservation larger than the state of West Virginia. The Navajo language, Diné bizaad, is a Southern Athabaskan language closely related to Apache, and some Navajo also know Navajo Sign Language or Plains Sign Talk. Their cultural achievements include Pueblo architecture, the taming of the horse after European colonization, and a rich artistic tradition in beadwork, painting, and dress. The Navajo Nation's governance and land base at the Four Corners region remain central to their identity and sovereignty. The legacy of the Navajo includes their adaptation of farming and herding, their role in regional trade networks, and their enduring presence as a distinct Indigenous nation.

Did You Know?

• The Navajo term for themselves is Diné, meaning '(the) people'.
• The Navajo language is closely related to the languages of the Apache.

Identity, Language & Origins

The Navajo call themselves the Diné, a word that simply translates to 'the people.' Their spoken language, Diné bizaad—literally 'People's language'—belongs to the Southern Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dené family and is closely related to the languages spoken by Apache peoples. Scholars trace both the Navajo and Apache to a southward migration out of subarctic North America, likely originating in northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska, roughly a thousand years ago. The label 'Navajo' was not self-chosen. Spanish missionaries and historians borrowed the Tewa word Navahu, meaning 'a large area of cultivated lands,' which had originally described Pueblo communities. By the 1640s the shortened form had stuck. Some Navajo also speak Navajo Sign Language, a dialect or daughter of Plains Sign Talk, and a few know Plains Sign Talk itself.

Cultural Adaptation & Artistic Heritage

The Diné began as hunters and gatherers but gradually reshaped their subsistence through sustained contact with Pueblo neighbors and, later, Spanish colonists. From the Pueblo people they adopted agriculture, learning to grow the traditional 'Three Sisters'—corn, beans, and squash. When the Spaniards arrived, the Navajo took up sheep and goat herding, which quickly became central to their economy and social life. Sheep served as a form of currency and a marker of familial status, while meat became essential to the daily diet. Women assumed the roles of spinning and weaving wool into blankets and clothing, producing objects of extraordinary artistic value that were widely traded and sold. This weaving tradition sits alongside a broader creative legacy encompassing intricate beadwork and distinctive, colorful styles in painting and dress. Oral histories reveal a long-standing relationship with Pueblo communities, including a willingness to incorporate Puebloan ideas and linguistic variance. Mid-sixteenth-century Spanish records document established trade in which Pueblo people exchanged maize and woven cotton goods for bison meat, hides, and stone brought by Athabaskans traveling to or living near the pueblos.

The Navajo Nation & Its Territory

The overwhelming majority of Diné hold enrollment in this nation, though a smaller number belong to the Colorado River Indian Tribes, another federally recognized group. It straddles the Four Corners region and is slightly larger than the entire state of West Virginia. The Navajo and related tribes also carry historic achievements, including contributions to Pueblo architecture and the taming of the horse following European colonization. In the eighteenth century, Spanish observers noted that the Navajo maintained large herds of livestock and cultivated extensive crop areas, underscoring the scale of their settled agricultural life.

Spanish Contact & the Cycle of Diplomacy

The earliest documented Spanish references to the Diné appear in the 1620s, when Fray Geronimo de Zarate-Salmeron, stationed at Jemez, used the phrase Apachu de Nabajo to describe people in the Chama Valley region east of the San Juan River. By the 1640s the shortened term Navajo had become standard. In the 1670s, Spanish writers placed the Diné in a region they called Dinétah, roughly sixty miles west of the Rio Chama Valley. Relations with the Spanish oscillated between conflict and cooperation. In the 1770s the Spanish launched military expeditions into the Mount Taylor and Chuska Mountain areas of New Mexico, yet the Navajo, Spanish, and Hopi also formed a loose alliance to resist Apache and Comanche bands for about twenty years, during which only minor raids occurred on both sides.