Native American Heritage of the Navajo Clan
Native American Heritage of the Navajo Clan
Hello professor, my name is Joshua Little Wolf. I am of the Bitter Water people. I am born for the Big Deer people. My maternal grandfather’s clan is the Bitter Water people, my paternal grandfather’s clan is the Big Deer people. I am from Houston, Texas. I was born in Austin, Texas. I will be discussing the importance of clans to the Navajo people. I will also discuss the origin of the clans, the four initial clans, the creation story involving Changing Woman, and the proper way people of the Navajo Nation introduce themselves.
The Navajo people do not have the same family structure as typical American families do. According to Harrison Lapahie Jr.:
“In the Navajo culture, two Navajos of the same clan, meeting for the first time, will refer to each other as "brother" or "sister". Navajos that are cousins to each other in the American sense, think of each other as "brother" or "sister" in the Navajo sense. Father's and mother's cousins in the American way are thought of as aunts and uncles in the Navajo way. Grandparent's brothers and sisters in the American way are thought of as grandma's and grandpa's in the Navajo way. Harrison Lapahie Jr. has many brothers, sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, and Grandpas, in the Navajo way, that are his Cousins, his father's and mother's cousins, and his grandparent's brothers and sisters in the American way .When a Navajo is in strange surroundings, it is not uncommon for his relatives (in the Navajo way) or his clan members, to have the responsibility for his housing, food, and welfare, while this individual is in the immediate area. A Navajo through his own clan (his mom's clan) and the clan groups to which his father as well as his spouse belong, has a great potential for personal contacts. This complex network of inter-relationships served in the past to fuse the scattered bands of Navajos and other American Indians together as a Navajo Tribe” (Dine` Clans).
Al Durtschi claims that:
“Family is very important to us. We have our immediate family, and we have our extended family. Our extended family is broken up into clans, which were created by the Holy Ones. The four original clans are Towering House, Bitterwater, Big water and One-who-walks-around. Today there are about 130 clans. When we meet another Navajo for the first time we tell each...