Tribes of the Southwest: Navajo (Dine) People

The Navajo (who call themselves Diné) speak dialects of the language family referred to as Athabaskan. Athabaskan speakers are found in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Similarities indicate the Navajo and other Southern Athabaskan speakers, known today as Apache, were once a single ethnic group that probably came from the Great Slave Lake area having crossed the Bering land bridge thousands of years previously.

Archaeological and historical evidence suggests that the Navajo ancestors entered the Southwest after 1000 AD, with substantial population increases occurring in the 13th century. The early Athabaskan way of life complicates accurate dating, primarily because they constructed less durable dwellings than other Southwestern groups. Sites where early Athabaskans speakers may have lived are difficult to locate and even more difficult to identify firmly as culturally Athabaskan.

Whenever the Navajo actually arrived, they occupied areas the Pueblos peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Navajo people traditionally hold the four sacred mountains as the boundaries of the homeland they should never leave: Blanca Peak (Tsisnaasjini' — Dawn or White Shell Mountain) in Colorado, Mount Taylor (Tsoodzil — Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain) in New Mexico, the San Francisco Peaks (Doko'oosliid — Abalone Shell Mountain) in Arizona, and Hesperus Mountain (Dibé Nitsaa — Big Mountain Sheep) in Colorado.

Silversmithing is said to have been introduced to the Navajo while in captivity at Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico in 1864. At that time Atsidi Saani learned the silversmithing and began teaching others the craft as well. By 1880 Navajo silversmiths were creating handmade jewelry including bracelets, tobacco flasks, necklaces, bow guards and eventually evolved into earrings, buckles, bolos, hair ornaments and pins. Turquoise has been used in jewelry by the Navajo for hundreds of years.