Traditional Navajo Songs
Copyright 1951 Canyon Records, Inc.
The NAVAJO, who call themselves Diné ("the people"), speak a language that belongs to the Athabaskan group. They occupy the second largest U.S. reservation covering northeastern Arizona, southeastern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. Many historians believe that the Navajo migrated from the Bering Strait region to the Southwest via western Canada and the Rockies, a theory which is supported by Navajo oral tradition. Originally a hunting and gathering people by the 17001 We Navajo adopted a farming and ranching lifestyle with new agricultural methods and ceremonial ideas learned from contacts with Pueblo peoples. With the arrival of the Spanish, the Navajo established themselves in the safety of Canyon de Chelly and experienced a period of great cultural and religious growth. After conflict with the U.S. military, they were forcibly relocated to eastern Mexico to be assimilated. The government's efforts failed and the Navajos returned to their homeland in 1868 starving and poor. Within a few years, however, the numbers of livestock had grown and the arrival of the railroad in 1886 provided necessary jobs and trade opportunities that provided relief for the emerging Navajo Nation. Today, the population numbers approximately 220,000.
The Navajo have succeeded in preserving their traditional culture and language while adapting to the changing world and have done so on their own terms. Navajo society is constructed around an intricate matrilineal clan system and these family relationships provide a strong foundation for the vitality of the people. A complex system of ceremonials provides a spiritual base for the community. A number of the songs on this recording are taken from the "Squaw Dance." The squaw dance is the centerpiece of the important Navajo ceremony known as the Enemyway. Used as a rite that exorcises the ghosts of outsiders and pacifies anger and violence, the ceremony was originally performed to protect warriors from the spirits of those they had killed. Now chiefly a healing ceremonial, the "enemy" is usually a sickness and the rite is performed to bestow curing blessings upon the afflicted person. In its original form, the relatives of the person to be healed would plan the ceremony. Mutton and beef would be prepared for the accompanying feast. Word of the event would spread throughout the reservation and often hundreds of people would travel to the encampment site to participate in the squaw dance.
Held on three successive nights at different encampments around a ceremonial bonfire, the squaw dance is the only traditional dance of the Navajo in which men and women dance together socially. Women invite the men to the dancing area where, arm-in-arm, they circle clockwise. Squaw dances include two-step and skip dances and the songs almost always have a short lyric on the subject of love and the relationships between men and women though an honoring lyric is sometimes used. Songs can be performed by a soloist or a group of as many eight or One singers. In more recent times, squaw dances are known as "traditional song and dances" and can be performed as purely social gatherings apart
from the Enemyway.
The Navajo have succeeded in preserving their traditional culture and language while adapting to the changing world and have done so on their own terms. Navajo society is constructed around an intricate matrilineal clan system and these family relationships provide a strong foundation for the vitality of the people. A complex system of ceremonials provides a spiritual base for the community. A number of the songs on this recording are taken from the "Squaw Dance." The squaw dance is the centerpiece of the important Navajo ceremony known as the Enemyway. Used as a rite that exorcises the ghosts of outsiders and pacifies anger and violence, the ceremony was originally performed to protect warriors from the spirits of those they had killed. Now chiefly a healing ceremonial, the "enemy" is usually a sickness and the rite is performed to bestow curing blessings upon the afflicted person. In its original form, the relatives of the person to be healed would plan the ceremony. Mutton and beef would be prepared for the accompanying feast. Word of the event would spread throughout the reservation and often hundreds of people would travel to the encampment site to participate in the squaw dance.
Held on three successive nights at different encampments around a ceremonial bonfire, the squaw dance is the only traditional dance of the Navajo in which men and women dance together socially. Women invite the men to the dancing area where, arm-in-arm, they circle clockwise. Squaw dances include two-step and skip dances and the songs almost always have a short lyric on the subject of love and the relationships between men and women though an honoring lyric is sometimes used. Songs can be performed by a soloist or a group of as many eight or One singers. In more recent times, squaw dances are known as "traditional song and dances" and can be performed as purely social gatherings apart
from the Enemyway.