Navajo (Nav'-uh-ho). The Navajo call themselves Dine, which means the "People."
They are the most numerous of the native nations in the unit states with over 200,000 people, most of whom live on the huge Navajo Reservation. Covering 15 million acres inthe four Coners area where the states of New Mexico, Arzona, Colorado and Utah come together, the Navajo Reseration is the size of the West Virginia. The reservation itself is spectacularly beautiful, although much of it is arid. At present, the lands of the Navajo and their tradtional ways of life are being seriously threatened by commercial mining interests that wish to strip much of the land for coal and uranium. The Navajo, like the Apache (who called Themselves Tineh), are close relatives of the Athabascan peoples of Alaska and the northwest and speak a similar language. They migrated from the northwest more than one thousand years ago. The name Navajo, which means "Enemy people," was given to them by the original residents of the southwest, the Pueblo peoples, whose villages they often raided. The typical Navajo dewlling is an eight-sided, dome-shaped, sigle-family stuctire called a hogan. The Navajo believe that balance is the natural human satate and that sickness is caused by imbalance. The hozho which appears in Navajo healing chants such as the beautyway, means both balance and beauty. Thier stories, which are similar to those of their Pueblo neghbors, are incorporated into their healing ceremonies as sand paintings picturing characters from tales. Since the 1800s, the fromerly nomadic Navajo have been herders of sheep, and they are widely known for beautifully woven wool blankets.

Oh Great Spirit
whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me, I am small and weak. I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you taught my people. Let me learn the lesson you have hidden in every leaf and rock. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my grestest enemy myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.