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SOUTHWESTERN STATES

Stetson Stories: Navajo-Churro Shepherds

Threads of Time: How Sheep and Humans Wove Art into History

This is a story about people and sheep, and you shouldn't be surprised. For the history of man has always been inextricably intertwined with the history of animals, especially domestic animals, for better or for worse, in peace and in war. In this story, or rather in the stories I'm about to tell you, the history of some sheep has become inextricably intertwined with the history of some people and their art. And it continues to this day. So these stories of people and sheep are also stories of art, beauty and creativity.

In the following pages, we'll look together at the profound symbiosis between humans and animals through the lens of art and cultural evolution.

Sheep, like other domesticated animals, are not merely passive participants in human history, but active co-creators of civilization. The Navajo Churro breed exemplifies this: its hardy wool became the basis for Navajo weaving, a practice that transformed utilitarian textiles into revered art forms. This mirrors global patterns – from the Merino sheep of Spain that fueled Europe's textile empires to the Karakul sheep of Central Asia that shaped nomadic felt art. Domestication was never a one-way conquest; it was a dialogue in which human ingenuity and creativity met animal adaptability. Navajo-Churro fleece, with its double coat, made possible the iconic Two Grey Hills tapestries, where natural dyes and intricate patterns encode tribal stories.

Today, the resurgence of the Navajo-Churro from near extinction in the 1970s parallels a broader movement.

• Ethical Fiber Arts: Navajo artists like DY Begay and non-Navajo artists like Minna White are using Navajo churro wool to reclaim cultural identity by blending tradition with contemporary design.
• Ecological Advocacy: Sheep grazing is being reimagined as land stewardship, inspiring projects like Fiber Shed, which connects farmers, dyers, and artists in sustainable systems.

We'll explore how these efforts challenge colonial narratives of resource extraction and reclaim indigenous knowledge. And we'll find answers to questions such as

• How do material constraints (e.g., the texture of wool) shape artistic choices?
• Can art revive endangered species, as in the case of churro conservation and textile revival?
• What ethical frameworks guide human-animal creativity in an era of climate crisis?

The stories that follow are not just about the past. On the contrary, they trace a roadmap for reimagining humanity's role as co-creator, not dominator, of ecological and cultural narratives. The sheep, in their quiet persistence, remind us that beauty and survival are woven from the same thread.

BELOW

Left: Navajo sheep and weaver. A Native American (Navajo) woman sits at a loom and weaves. A wooden crate that reads: "Charles Unsweetened Evaporated Milk" is near the woman. A herd of sheep walk on a ledge nearby. A stone and earth hogan is near the sheep. Photo by William M. Pennington, taken between 1904 and 1932. Source: Denver Digital Library. Public Domain.

Right: Navajo baby on a typical cradleboard with a lamb approaching, Window Rock, Arizona. Photo by J. Armstrong Roberts, 1930. Public Domain.

THE FIRST AMERICAN SHEEP

La oveja churra, or the coarse-wool sheep, is an ancient breed native to the Spanish region of Castilla y León, where it has been intensively bred since prehistoric times. This hardy sheep, well adapted to long, hard winters, very short springs and dry, hot summers, was and still is a traditional triple-purpose breed, raised for milk, meat and its coarse wool, suitable for carpet-making.

Churra ewes and lambs in Segovia, Spain, 2010.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Unlike the finer Merino breed favored by the European aristocracy, the Churra thrived in harsh, arid environments – a trait that made it ideal for Spain's colonial ambitions. Christopher Columbus first brought Churra sheep to the Caribbean during his second voyage in 1493, establishing them as a food source for early settlements.

Spain began establishing colonies in the Caribbean following Columbus' voyages, and livestock was indeed part of this colonization effort. A more significant introduction occurred in 1519, when Hernán Cortés imported churras to the Mexican mainland to feed his troops during the conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a major expedition through what is now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542 in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold. He brought with him a considerable amount of livestock, including sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. Coronado tried to take some sheep with him, but they proved to be an obstacle and were left at the Yaquimi River.

In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate led an expedition to colonize New Mexico, bringing with him over 7,000 head of livestock, including horses, oxen, sheep, goats, and cattle. This expedition was indeed crucial in establishing a permanent Spanish presence in the Southwest.

The present-day southwestern United States, along with California, Florida, and Louisiana, Mexico and Central America, parts of the Caribbean, including Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico, and northern parts of South America were united in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Virreinato de Nueva España), which was officially established in 1535. The map above shows the viceroyalty, which lasted until 1821, at its greatest expansion around 1800.

Map by by Simeon Netchev, 2022. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.

In short, as the Navajo-Churro Sheep Association says, «The Spanish Churra was the very first breed of domesticated sheep in the New World.»

With the expansion of Spanish ranching in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, Churra sheep became an integral part of the economy and culture not only of Hispanic communities, but also of many Native Americans.

Pueblo peoples were enslaved to herd the animals and to weave textiles for the Spanish colonizers. The Navajo or Diné people first encountered Churra sheep through trade and raids on Spanish outposts in the late 16th century. Unlike the Pueblo peoples, who were forced to herd Spanish flocks under colonial rule, the Navajo voluntarily incorporated sheep into their herding economy. By the mid-18th century, large Navajo flocks  roamed the Four Corners region, transforming the tribe from hunter-gatherers to a pastoral society. The breed's adaptability proved crucial: its lean physique conserved energy in sparse grazing conditions, while its double-coated fleece – coarse outer fibers and soft undercoat – provided ideal material for weaving.

«After the turmoil of 1680, when the Pueblos revolted against Spanish oppression, the Navajos acquired more sheep, as did the Apaches. The Apaches ate the sheep they took but the Navajos nurtured their acquisitions and increased their herds. As European settlers came west and the demand for fine wool in the American textile industry increased, many flocks of Churra sheep were "upgraded" by crossbreeding with Merino and English longwool sheep. However, some Churras remained in the remote Hispanic villages, among the isolated Navajos, and on the West Coast. These isolated flocks eventually formed the landrace sheep, the Navajo Churro, named to recognize the Spanish and Navajo influences.» (Navajo-Churro Sheep Association, USA).

This native race, the first "American" in every sense of the word, soon became the center of the economic and cultural life for the Navajo. They were used to say Dibé béí iiná, "Sheep is life".

ABOVE

Navajo-Churro sheep, especially rams, may have two, four, or even six horns. Ewes can also have this characteristic, although it is less common. The sheep of this breed exhibit a remarkable variety of natural colors and patterns: the breed comes in more than 14 natural colors, ranging from white to black, and including various shades of brown, gray, and even blue. Color patterns can include solid colors, badger face, black and tan, and spotted varieties. Some sheep may have mottled coloration on their face and legs, which helps protect them from the intense UV rays of their desert habitat.This wide range of colors and patterns makes Navajo Churro wool especially prized by weavers for creating naturally colored, chemical-free, intricate traditional rugs and textiles.

BELOW

Left: A view of John Ford Point (foreground) and Merrick Butte in Monument Valley, on the Navajo Native American reservation on the border of Arizona and Utah. Photograph, mid-20th century. Source: Alamy.

Right: Three Navajo women weaving, with a baby on a typical cradleboard and a flock of sheep on ledge above, ca. 1914. Pennington & Rowland, Copyright Claimant. Source: Library of Congress, USA.

You may have noticed in the black and white photos the special cradleboard on which the Navajo babies were placed, supported vertically on the floor - certainly a more interesting position than lying on their backs, because the sky is beautiful, but mom, grandma, voices, sheep, the colors of the blankets, and the smells of the earth are much more stimulating.

Here are two more old pictures where you can better see how the babies were carried on women's shoulders using cradleboards.

Left: Portrait of Yoba Nani Chi with a baby in a cradleboard, photo by William M Pennington, ca. 1915-1925. Source: National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Online Virtual Archive, USA.

Right: Studio portrait of a seated Navajo/Diné mother with her child in a cradleboard, photo by William M Pennington, ca. 1915-1925. Source: Denver Public Library Special Collections, CO, USA.

Navajo cradleboards are traditional protective carriers for infants that reflect the unique craft culture and spiritual beliefs of the Diné people. These cradleboards are still used today in some Navajo communities.

They consisted of several components:

• A rigid frame made of pine or cottonwood representing Mother Earth (Nahasdzaan) and Father Sky (Ya dilhil).
• The top of the board was engraved with a V-shape, with two small holes near it, representing the ears (Jeeyi').
• A wooden bow or arch of oak was attached near the top, symbolizing the rainbow (Naatsi iilid) and providing protection for the baby's head.
• Buckskin was used to tie the boards together and secure the infant.
• A footrest at the base of the board represents a small rainbow (Naats iilid).

The design of the cradleboard includes several symbolic elements:

• Buckskin loops on the sides represent lightning (Atsiniltl'ish).
• A long buckskin strap on the right side, used to tie the loops and strap the infant, represents the sunbeam (shabitl ool).
• In Diné communities, there was a ritual associated with finding the perfect cedar for the cradle, with lightning struck trees being highly sought after.

Navajo/Diné cradleboards served several purposes: they kept the baby safe and comfortable, wrapped in soft cotton blankets and tied to the board with buckskin cords. The inside was padded with a lining of fresh plant fibers, such as peat moss, cattail down, shredded juniper, or cliffrose bark; all of these materials could serve as disposable diapers, although the lining could also be cleaned and reused. The wooden arch protects the baby's face from the sun. Cradleboards could be leaned against trees, carried on a mother's or grandmother's back, or even hung from a sturdy tree branch or wall. They allowed mothers to work while keeping their babies close, as evidenced by the practice of attaching cradleboards to looms while women woven.

The Navajo cradleboard tradition continues to be an important part of Diné culture, with some families still making or passing down cradleboards as baby gifts.

Left: Navajo/Diné baby in cradleboard, September 1908. Source: National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Center: Navajo/Diné Woman and Infant, Canyon de Chelle, Arizona, photo by Ansel Adams, taken between 1933 and 1942. Source: National Archives at College Park. Public Domain.

Right: Navajo/Diné cradleboard, photo by Neeta Lind, 2011. Under under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Cradle Song by Sharon Burch.

Sharon Burch is a Navajo singer, composer, and educator known for her contemporary expressions of traditional Navajo culture through music. Born to a Navajo mother and German father, she grew up in New Mexico speaking only Navajo until she started school.

Burch's musical career spans several decades. "Cradle Song" is a track from her 1999 album "Colors of My Heart," which was inspired by songs her mother and grandfather, Charlie Yazzie, sang to her during her childhood. Many of Burch's songs are in the Navajo language and focus on themes such as the sacredness of Mother Earth, Father Sun, and the importance of family.

Burch has received recognition for her work, including an EMMY for Original Music in a Documentary (1992) and an INDIE Award for Native American Music (1995). She continues to perform and share her music, which serves as a contemporary expression of traditional Navajo ways and life.

THE SURPRISING HISTORY OF THE NAVAJO PEOPLE AND THEIR SHEEP

Today, the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States by enrolled membership, surpassing the large Cherokee Nation. It's also the largest Native American nation in all of North America.

The Navajos occupy the largest reservation in the southwestern United States: a territory called Diné Bikéyah that stretches across northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. This territory, larger than ten U.S. states, is one of the few reservations whose lands overlap with the traditional homelands of the Navajo or Diné people, and the Navajo Nation represents a unique sovereign entity within the United States, existing as an internal dependent nation rather than a fully independent country.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I'm going to tell you a little bit of Navajo history. It's not possible to understand anything about the Navajo without knowing something about their history, just as it's not possible to understand anything about a person without knowing what happiness and pain they have experienced and how they have shaped each of those joys and sorrows into a narrative. As the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur once said, «Who I am is a question we continually answer throughout our lives, depending on our experiences and our interpretations of those experiences.»

So sit back and listen to the stories I'm about to tell you, some of which will surprise you, because the way many of us look at Native Americans has been influenced by a one-sided narrative, very frothy, airy, and cosmetic, to tell the truth: that of Hollywood movies, spaghetti Westerns, comic books, and TV series set in the Wild West. Few Mexicans resembled Don Diego de la Vega, alias Zorro, few "whites" were as kind as Zeb Macahan or as heroic as John Wayne's characters, and, as we saw in the first chapter of MATA ORTIZ POTTERY, it was more common for colonists to scalp "Indians" for money than for Indians to scalp non-Natives in revenge.

Among the historical sources that I will use in this chapter, I would like to mention Diné - A History of the Navajos by Peter Iverson (2002, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, USA). The reason is simple: this essays is well documented and Iverson, who was Regents Professor of History (Emeritus) at Arizona State University, includes in his sources not only the essays of non-Navajo historians, but also those of Navajo scholars such as Jennifer Denetdale or AnCita Benally, and the old Diné chants and tales.

BELOW

Monument Valley, part of the Colorado Plateau, located on the southern border of Utah with northern Arizona. The valley lies within the the Navajo Nation Reservation, and is called Tsé Bii' Ndzisgaii (Valley of the Rocks). Photo by Wolfgang Staudt, 2008, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Navajo Loretta, Eula M. Atene and 3 month old boy Leon Clark pose in Monument Valley, part of the Navajo National Tribal Park on the Arizona-Utah border. Photo by Barbara Barrett, 2018. Source: Carol M. Highsmith's America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, USA.

UNDER THE SPANISH AND MEXICAN RULE

The Apacheans – namely the Navajos and the Apaches who speak different languages that belong to the same Athabaskan subfamily within the Na-Dené family – moved into the Southwest from northwestern Canada and Alaska in the twelfth or thirteenth century at the latest.

According to Peter Iverson, many historians and Navajo scholars, «the Diné biological and cultural heritage as complex. They acknowledge the likelihood of multiple sources for that heritage, including Apachean groups, and genealogical descendants of both Precolumbian residents of the central Colorado Plateau and other Postcolumbian emigrants onto the Plateau.» Prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, the Navajo traded with and adopted cultural elements from the Anasazi and Hopi, and engaged in local conflicts with the Comanches and Utes.

«The cradle of Navajo civilization, the Dinétah is a rugged stretch of land to the east of present-day Farmington, New Mexico. (...) The arrival of the Spaniards did not create instantaneous conflict for the Navajos, because the initial Spanish presence in the Rio Grande Valley lay well to the east of Navajo country. But the Spanish were committed to expansion, too, and even the Navajo appreciation for Spanish generosity for bringing such wonderful beings as horses, sheep, cattle, and goats could not forestall eventual conflict.» (P. Iverson, cit.).

The Spanish conquistadors and ranchers brought with them several treasures whose economic potential the Navajos immediately recognized: sheep - the churra, as we have seen - as well as horses, cattle, and goats, all important resources that the Navajos acquired through trade and raiding and managed wisely.

The Spanish also brought other small treasures: indigo dye (from Mexico) and bayeta, a rare red cloth dyed with cochineal (a cactus louse). The churra wool and these latter elements enabled the Navajo women, who had learned the basics of weaving from the Puebloans, to become master weavers and their men to become merchants of the finest blankets and rugs in the Southwest by the first half of the 17th century.

But the Spaniards also brought with them a plan to conquer Native American lands and subjugate local communities that was as systematic as it was often brutal and merciless.

«Spanish-Navajo contact during the 1500s is difficult to track, in part because of the dispersed nature of the Navajo population; the Diné are far from being a unified nation but rather constitute a series of autonomous groups with highly localized leadership patterns. It was not always clear to the Spaniards just which Native group they were dealing with from one moment to the next, especially in the earlier years. Over time they began to realize that the Navajos shared, with some variation, a common language, common rituals, and common values, and upon special occasions attempted to transcend local allegiance in the interests of a more unified response to some contemporary challenge, but local authority almost always prevailed. Moreover, there are uncertainties surrounding the terms the Spaniards chose to employ.  (...)  The first specific Spanish references to the Navajos as Navajos came in 1626 and 1630. In 1626, Fray Geronimo de Zarate Salmeron wrote of “the Apache Indians of Navaju”; the Tewa word navahu means “large area of cultivated lands.” Four years later, Fray Alonso de Benavides calls the Navajos "very great farmers", for that is what Navajo signifies: great planted fields.» (P. Iverson, cit.).

BELOW

The Conquest of the Colorado, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto, 2017.

(Licensed under Creative CommonsAttribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International)

If the availability of sheep and goats, traded or stolen by the Spanish, gave the Navajos stability and made them one of the largest and most powerful communities, the introduction of horses turned them into formidable adversaries. In the 17th century, the history of Spanish-Navajo relations can be summed up in two words: conflict and resistance.

A particularly dark chapter in this history was the Spanish targeting of Apaches, Navajos, and Utes for the slave trade beginning in the 1600s. Spanish governors participated in the kidnapping and sale of these indigenous peoples into slavery. This practice was part of a broader pattern of exploitation that included forcing Pueblo peoples into the Spanish encomienda system, which extracted labor and tribute from indigenous communities. Peter Iverson writes: «The Navajos suffered more from Spanish slavery than any other indigenous group.»

In the first half of the 17th century, enslavement was not systematic. But in the second half of the century, this barbarism was pursued by the Spanish with commercial determination; the slave market was not like that of sheep and cattle for only one reason: it was much more profitable.

«In 1659, Bernardo Lopez de Mendizabal became governor of New Mexico. McNitt observes: “While his predecessors had made handsome profits in the acquisition or sale of Indian slaves, Governor Lopez apparently was determined to use his three-year term of office to make a fortune.” In the course of his administration, many Navajos were killed or dragged away into bondage. A slave owner himself, Lopez made a personal profit through the now flourishing slave trade, ordering raids against Navajo communities and then having the captives taken to Sonora, where they were sold. (...). In 1675 and twice in 1678, Spanish governors authorized military campaigns against the Navajos. During both efforts, hundreds of Pueblo men joined the Spanish ranks, either because they had been coerced to do so or because they had some grievance of their own. These initiatives resulted in the massive destruction of Navajo fields of corn, the capture of men, women, and children, and the killing of other Diné.» (P. Iverson, cit.).

The year 1680 was marked by the Pueblo Revolt, also known as Popé's Rebellion, a significant uprising by indigenous Pueblo people against Spanish colonization in what is now New Mexico. Led by Popé, a San Juan Indian medicine man, the revolt united 46 different Pueblos, some over 200 miles apart, and created a militia of over 2,000 indigenous fighters against approximately 170 armed Spanish men. Carefully coordinated with knotted strings sent to the participating pueblos, each knot representing a day leading up to the planned uprising on August 11, 1680, the revolt was remarkably successful. The Spanish did not successfully return to the region until 1692, when Don Diego de Vargas began the "reconquest" with acts of repression and retaliation. Although some individual Navajos certainly participated in the 1680 uprising, most Diné did not directly joined the Pueblos; however, the uprising demonstrated to all Southwestern communities, even those who did not participate, the possibility of successful resistance to Spanish occupation. And the Navajos resisted.

The Pueblo Rebellion of 1680, mural painted by Loren Mozley in 1936 with Federal Art Project funds and restored in 1996. It's located on a first-floor wall, just above two elevators, inside the Federal Building and U. S. Courthouse in Albuquerque (New Mexico). Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

«However, the first two decades of the 18th century witnessed constant campaigns against the Navajos, inaugurated in 1705 by a major effort that Jemez and other Pueblo refugees with the Diné also had to endure. Once again, the Navajos paid a price: The Spaniards destroyed many of their fields, killed an undetermined number of Diné, and took still others captive. Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez observed that he had waged war against the Navajos “because of their great crimes, their audacity, and their reckless depredations upon the frontiers and pueblos of this kingdom.” This campaign did not occur in isolation; for more than a decade thereafter, full-scale Spanish military expeditions were carried out against the Navajos almost without surcease.» (P. Iverson, cit.).

In the late 18th century, Canyon de Chelly and its environs in northeastern present-day Arizona - within the current boundaries of the Navajo Nation - became the heart of the Diné Bikéyah, the homeland of the Navajo people.

In January 1805, a Spanish punitive expedition led by Lieutenant Antonio Narbona attacked Navajos who had taken refuge on a high ledge along Canyon del Muerto, part of Canyon de Chelly. According to Navajo accounts, the Navajo men had gone on an expedition, leaving the women, children and elderly to hide on a ledge fortified with stone walls. Their position was revealed when an elderly woman, who had been a Spanish slave, taunted the passing troops and began shouting insults in Spanish.

In Narbona's own report to the governor of New Mexico, dated January 25, 1805, he described how his troops "fought all day with the greatest zeal" against the Navajos, who were "entrenched in an almost inaccessible place. The next morning, his forces overcame the defenses, resulting in the deaths of 90 Navajo warriors and 25 women and children. In addition, 33 Navajos were taken prisoner (3 warriors, 8 women, and 22 children). Narbona reported Spanish losses as 1 dead and 64 wounded.

This military action was part of an ongoing conflict between Spanish colonizers and Navajos. The Spanish expedition was sent specifically to subdue the Navajos in response to raids on Spanish settlements. The site of this confrontation is now known as Massacre Cave, located high on the west wall of Canyon del Muerto, a short distance upstream from Mummy Cave.

View from Antelope House overlook (Navajo Fortress overlook), northern rim of Canyon del Muerto, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, northeastern Arizona, USA. Today this area lies entirely within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.

Photo by James St. John, 2007. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Seven Navajo riders on horseback and dog trek against background of the cliffs of the Canyon de Chelly. Photo by E. S. Curtis, 1904.

Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. USA.

Massacre Cave represents one of many violent confrontations between Navajos and Spanish colonizers in the Southwest during this period. But the "Nabajos," as the Navajos were often called in Spanish, refused to become docile subjects of the colonizers. The history of the Diné is one of persistent resistance to outside control: they maintained their cultural identity and independence despite centuries of pressure from Spanish colonizers and later Mexican forces.

New Spain officially became the independent nation of Mexico on September 28, 1821, following the drafting of the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire in Mexico City. This event marked the end of three centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Nothing changed for the Navajos.

Resistance continued throughout the last years of Spanish rule:

• Facundo Melgares, the last Spanish governor of New Mexico before Mexican independence in 1821, led two unsuccessful expeditions against the Navajo, who attacked New Mexican settlers.
• In October 1821, Melgares was forced to sue for peace with the Navajo.

After Mexican independence in 1821, the Navajo continued their resistance:

• In 1823, they rejected Governor José Antonio Vizcarra's treaty that would have settled them in pueblos and converted them to Catholicism.
• After Vizcarra's 74-day military expedition against them, the Navajo launched retaliatory raids on Socorro, Tome, and Albuquerque, reaching the outskirts of Santa Fe.

These events marked the beginning of a long period of raids and counter-raids that would last until 1848. Throughout this period, the Navajo demonstrated remarkable resilience, using their mobility and strategic alliances to maintain their independence against all attempts at subjugation.

Kindly take a moment to view the following images.

A Navajo man stringing a bow. Photograph by Roland Reed, ca. 1913. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C., USA

LEFT: Jim, a Navajo Indian holding bow and arrows. Photograph probably taken in New Mexico in the fall of 1866 by the Duhem Brothers. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C., USA

CENTER: Harririo, a Navajo chief holding a bow. Photograph probably taken in New Mexico in the fall of 1866 by the Duhem Brothers. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C., USA

RIGHT: Bi-joshii, a Navajo leader, holding bow and arrow, ca. 1914. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C., USA

The Role of Bow and Arrow Technology in Navajo (Diné) Culture

The Navajo (Diné) people, like many other indigenous groups in North America, had a close relationship with bow and arrow technology before the widespread adoption of firearms. Archaeological evidence suggests that the bow and arrow arrived in the Americas between 200 and 700 AD, gradually replacing the atlatl (spear-thrower) and dart system that had been in use for millennia (Wilke & Schroedl, 1988; Blitz, 1988). Some of the earliest evidence in the American Southwest indicates the presence of this technology as early as AD 200-300, with definitive adoption by at least AD 500 (Cordell, 1997).

In Navajo culture, the bow (Ałtį́į́) and arrow (kʼaaʼ) were more than utilitarian tools – they were integral to survival, cultural identity, and spiritual traditions. Used primarily for hunting, these weapons provided food and protection. Manuelito Wheeler, director of the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona, explains:

«I would say their pragmatic use was primarily for hunting and secondarily for defence. Sinew from the backbones of deer and other animals was glued to the back of the bows to add strength and elasticity for more power. In addition, Navajo bows tended to be shorter than those used by eastern tribes due to a lack of wood and the fact that the Navajo generally hunted on horseback and needed something small and manoeuvrable.»

The cultural significance of bows and arrows goes beyond their historical use. They continue to play a role in Navajo ceremonies and are often displayed above the entrances to Navajo homes as symbols of protection (Reichard, 1950; Farella, 1984).

Firearms and the Navajo: Adaptation and Tactical Use

The Diné first encountered firearms with the arrival of Spanish explorers in the Southwest in the late 1600s. According to Navajo historian Wally Brown, linguistic and oral traditions suggest that the Diné were among the first Native nations to adopt firearms for both hunting and warfare. They quickly adapted to the new technology, acquiring weapons through trade networks and sometimes through conflict.

By the late 1600s, firearms had begun to surpass bows in most combat situations, although Native warriors recognized the strategic advantages of both weapons depending on the circumstances (Brugge, 1983; Sweeney, 1996). Despite the increasing use of firearms, the bow remained in use well into the 19th century, particularly for activities where speed, agility, and stealth were essential. For example, many Native horsemen continued to use bows to hunt buffalo because early firearms were slow to reload and cumbersome to fire while mounted (Calloway, 1997; Utley, 2003).

The Spiritual and Cultural Legacy of Archery

The use of bows and arrows among the Navajo was not just a practical matter - it had deep spiritual and cultural significance. In Navajo oral tradition, the bow and arrow were sacred gifts of divine origin. The terms Ałtį́į́ and kʼaaʼ symbolize both life-giving and life-taking powers. According to traditional narratives, Tobajishchini (Born-For-Water) and Naayééʼ Neizghání (Monster Slayer) were given a bow of lightning arrows by their father, Jóhonaaʼéí (the Sun), to slay the monsters that threatened the people. This story serves as a moral and philosophical teaching tool, emphasizing that the power of the bow requires not only physical mastery but also inner wisdom (Zolbrod, 1984; Gill, 2002).

Recognizing its enduring cultural importance, Diné College has integrated archery into its Native American Studies curriculum, using it as a vehicle for teaching traditional knowledge, self-determination, and holistic learning. This integration highlights how archery remains a powerful symbol of Navajo identity and resilience in contemporary society (McPherson, 2001).

Sources:

• Blitz, J. H. (1988). Adoption of the Bow in Prehistoric North America. North American Archaeologist.
• Brugge, D. M. (1983). Navajos in the Catholic Church Records of New Mexico, 1694–1875. Navajo Tribal Museum.
• Calloway, C. G. (1997). New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America. JHU Press.
• Cordell, L. S. (1997). Archaeology of the Southwest. Academic Press.
• Farella, J. R. (1984). The Main Stalk: A Synthesis of Navajo Philosophy. University of Arizona Press.
• Gill, S. D. (2002). Native American Religions: An Introduction. Wadsworth.
• McPherson, R. S. (2001). Navajo Land, Navajo Culture: The Utah Experience in the Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press.
• Reichard, G. A. (1950). Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism. Bollingen Series.
• Sweeney, E. (1996). Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief. University of Oklahoma Press.
• Utley, R. M. (2003). The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull. Henry Holt.
• Wilke, P. J., & Schroedl, G. F. (1988). Prehistoric Use of the Atlatl and Bow and Arrow in the Eastern United States. American Antiquity.
• Witherspoon, G. (1977). Language and Art in the Navajo Universe. University of Michigan Press.
• Zolbrod, P. G. (1984). Diné Bahane': The Navajo Creation Story. University of New Mexico Press.

Kokopelli Wind from Canyon Trilogy by R. Carlos Nakai.

Raymond Carlos Nakai, born in Arizona in 1946, is a famous Native American flautist of Navajo and Ute heritage.

Alyx Becerra