EXERCISE 1 - Origins/ Demographics/ Language/ Brief History

Learning Objectives

In this exercise you will become familiar with the following:

• Diné Nation Flag
• Territory
• The Great Seal of the Navajo
• Information on the Diné Language (The Navajo refer to themselves as Diné, which means “people”)
• Short Navajo vocabulary
• Links to additional Navajo information websites
• EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Elder Jones Benally telling stories about growing up as a child.
• EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Elder Jones Benally and Klee perform drums songs.

The Navajo Flag

Territory

The Navajo Nation (Naabeehó Bináhásdzo) territory covers about 17,544,500 acres (71,000 km2; 27,413 sq mi), occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico in the United States. This is the largest land area retained by a Native American tribe, with a population of roughly 340,000.

The Great Seal of the Navajo Nation

Navajo – The people’s language

In the preceeding video you will hear Klee’s father, Jones, speaking Navajo, and many others introducing themselves and their clans in Navajo. The Navajo refer to themselves as Diné, which means “people”, and the Navajo language as Diné bizaad, which means “people’s language”. Navajo is a Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené family.

Navajo is mainly spoken in the southwestern United States and is one of the most widely spoken Native American languages with over 150,000 speakers. It is most closely related to Western Apache and shares over 92 per cent of its vocabulary. It first appeared in writing in 1849 as a Navajo word list published in the Journal of Military Reconnaissance, although an officially orthography (based on Latin script) was not developed until the 1930s.

Much as they refer to their own language (Diné bizaad) as “people’s language” they refer to English as “white man’s language”; the Navajo word for white man is bilagáana and the Navajo word for English is bilagáana bizaad.

Below is a short Navajo vocabulary list:

For more information please visit the following resources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation
• http://www.navajo-nsn.gov/history.htm
• http://www.discovernavajo.com/Discover-Navajo-Map.htm
• http://www.explorenavajo.com/go2/visit_navajo_land...

Discussion Point: Do you know anyone from your community who grew up before electricity, pavement and vehicles? What is a traditional life?

Discussion Point: What is traditional musical instrument of your people? Elder Jones and Klee Benally perform a drum song.

Dine Territory Map

Downloadable Text