Location of Attraction: Between Burger King and Hampton Inn along side US 160, near turnoff to Kayenta, AZ
Erected Attraction: Navajo Nation
Nearby Attractions: Navajo Code Talker Museum inside Burger King
I was there in January of 2009. Traveling home from San Diego CA where my son had just graduated from the Marine Corps Boot Camp- we were headed home on his Boot leave before leaving for Japan.
Marker Texts presented in order of importance (by me)
I was a Communications and Recon Marine. I worked with many Navajo and Apache Marines. So this site had a lot of emotion for me. We served in Vietnam.
Main Event:
THE PALISADED HOGAN
(Female Hogan)
"Hogan" is an original Navajo word for a Navajo round home. The correct pronunciation in the Navajo language is "hoogan". Navajoes use the word "kin" meaning a square or rectangular house or Anasazi structure. This type of hogan is the most prevalent on the reservation, built because of the need for more space. With the introduction of farms and sheep, the Navajoes had a need to make more room for their implements and children.
All Navajo ceremonies and sings for curing the sick are conducted in hogans. Originally, all hogans were arranged and furnished the same from hogan to hogan. Now, large hogans may have beds, tables, always a stove, possibly a few chairs, and occasionally - a window.
The structure is built on pillars of ologs or rocks, cribbed logs, or whatever is available in the local area. At allup, New Mexico, for example, hogans are constructed from Railroad ties. The shape of the hogan resembles that of the "wickup", on oval shaped frame covered with brush, built by the Athapascan linguistic related tribe - the Apaches. In other words, Apaches speak the Navajo language. This particular style of hogan where the roof is constructed of stacked or piled logs is considered the the female hogan because it resembles the flared skirt of a Navajo woman. The hogan does not use nails and the door hinges used to be constructed from shoe soles.
...(unreadable)...had two hogans commonly referred ....(unreadable)...winter camp" and "summer camp" Living in summer camp would allow the grass to replenish itself.....(unreadable...
The arrangement of items in a hogan are always alike from hogan to hogan. The placement of small cupboard to boxes to hold dishes for example, was always immediately to the right as one entered the doorway. On the immediate left was always a couple of axes, rifle, shovel, and a bucket for water. This method of always having a hogan set up in the same fashion developed around the sheep and having to move at least twice a year. Typically, a Navajo extended family all lived at a summer camp because of the family farm. The winter camp might however, be comprised of some of the extended family members while other families might live elsewhere, but not of a great distance with some of their smaller herds of sheep. All families moved about every six months, (to let the grass grow), the children would take all the possessions to the other camp. Often times, the wagon road to the other camp was a direct route, sometimes requiring two days to get there. The sheep had to be moved also, which were often looked after by a group of adults. The route to the new home for the sheep would be based upon water holes, sometimes taking five to seven days for the sheep to arrive at eh new camp.
When the children arrive at the new camp, they will unpack the wagon. As each item is taken off the wagon, they knew where the axe goes, they know where the sheep skins go. They also know that this whole process of moving, packing and unpacking, will be repeated in about six months, at the other camp.
WELCOME TO OUR NAVAJO HOME
Hogans always face east. The layout of this hogan is modeled after a typical Navajo home. It is an adaptation to having to move at least twice a year. Ordinarily, an adult would drive a wagon full of the family possessions, adolescents and children. After arrival at the hogan, they would unload the wagon in the same fashion as you see here inside this hogan. Everything has its place. Try to imagine that while you're here inside this hogan, there are three or four hogans outside.
CLEANINESS (sig.)
Cleanliness of clothing, bedding, even the quality of furnishings varies a great deal from hogan to hogan. Some Navajo women - like some white women - tend to be immaculate housekeepers while some are sloven. The number of lice differs in accord with the newness of the bedding and frequency of sunning it. Delousing the hair is a social activity, performed for the children by the mothers, or each other.
SLEEP (Women's area)
Explaining the sleeping arrangements is slightly complicated in a one-room domestic home. Navajos do not undress when they go to sleep. If only the immediate family members are present, then the husband and wife would sleep on this side of the hogan. The children would sleep on the opposite side -- Sleep (Men's area). Babies always lay in its cradle nest to their mother.
It this family has guests who are comprised of another immediate family, then all members of the host family would sleep here. The guest family members would sleep on the opposite side - SLEEP (Men's area).
On cold winter mornings, you could always count on the grandmother speaking from her bedroll, "Someone make the fire, someone make the fire." Eventually, someone would get up and build a fire. After the hogan got warm, people would start to get up.
THE FORKED HOGAN (male)
This particular type of hogan has almost vanished. Typically, they were used as ceremonial pieces but as the Navajo changed, they allowed ceremonies to take place in "female" hogans as is presently the case. These hogans are built in the same fashion as a sweathouse lodge and are limited in space. The fork stick hogan (called the conical hogan in English and the male hogan in Navajo), was a common sight on the Navajo landscape during the 1600's and 1700's when Navajo were a smaller tribe and had fewer sheep. As more sheep begat more sheep, Navajo families became larger and they also began to accumulate more possessions. The Navajo families needed more and larger hogans. In the transformation from the fork stick hogan (male) to the round hogan (female), a typical family would have a cluster of five female hogans to live in and one male hogan for ceremonies. During the months or weeks that the male hogan was not being used for ceremonies, it would be used to shelter grain or bales of hay for the livestock.
The fork stick hogan was the most common dwelling until the introduction of sheep. With sheep came many changes. First of all, more children would live because their food source was right outside. The hogan is warm in the winter and cool in the summer because it is so well insulated. So well insulated in fact, that Navajoes never cooked inside during the summer. Navajoes also began farming so they had plenty of dried fruit, grains and corn. No more did the male Indians have to go out hunting for deer, rabbits, or turkey, in the winter time. With more sheep, the Navajoes could afford more cooking utensils, more saddles and bridles, more basic foods such as flour and baking powder, salt and sugar, coffee, and canned lard.
More sheep also brought about the problem of a "store in value". How can an extended family possibly consume 1,000 head of sheep? At the same time, what if half the flock freezes to death this coming winter? The answer to a "store of value: was silver. Americans, Mexicans, various Pueblos and the local Indian Trader would all trade for silver. Hence, the Navajo people became famous for their silver jewelry. Although Navajoes liked turquoise, they prefer thick and heavy silver with their turquoise jewelry.
The hogan is such an integral part of Navajo life that the logs which make up a hogan cannot be used for anything else. Even if a hogan gets old and a new one is to be erected, a Navajo cannot use the old logs if they were part of a hogan.
THE SWEAT LODGE
(Sweathouse)
The scares' resource in the desert is water. So how does one use little water yet still take a bath? Many desert cultures and cold climate area-cultures have answered this same question with a sauna. The Navajo Sweathouse is simply a sauna house.
The general idea is to build a fire outside and heat rocks. Take the heated rocks to the center of the Sweathouse in a heap and close the air vents (normally with layers of blankets). Nowadays, the Navajoes use sheets of plastic and a blanket.
Pour a cup of water over the heated rocks which creates steam. The condensation of water on the skin feels like sweat, hence the name p Sweat Lodge or Sweathouse. Sometimes, only the heat from the rocks was used with no water at all.
Generally, several bathers undressed outside and crawled inside. They would first decide on a number of "sweat house songs" to sing or they would tell each other tales and stories. If a Navajo bather went inside by himself or herself, then it was usually after a hard days work, generally to relax tired or aching muscles. The Sweat Lodge was seen as a place to cure aching muscles.
WAGONS
Into the late 1930's, few Navajos around the Kayenta area had wagons. Washes, canyons, mesas and mountain ranges in the western region of the reservation typically made road building difficult. The vast interior of the reservation remained accessible only by horseback, the riders using familiar trails. Navajos started to prosper with more and more sheep from the sale of lambs, wool and rugs. More sheep also meant more children and more material wealth increasing a demand for wagons. Additionally, the construction of bridges and roads started to increase the demand for wagons. Wagons for the Navajos meant the difference between confinement to a spring of some primary source of water or living where you wanted because with a wagon you could haul 55 gallon drums of water.