Old Navajo Woman's Life Experiences

         A Navajo Woman's Life- Told in her own words

She was born in Chilchinbeto, on reservation territory in Northern Arizona. It is a very poor
community, but very close-knit. It has no stores or post office. It has very few telephones. It does
have a school and a clinic and a chapter house (town hall).

It's great claim to fame is that it is the home of the "World's Largest Indian Rug" The rug
measures 25' × 40' and was made entirely by hand, including the dyeing of the wool. Lupita
worked on this rug with nine of her friends. And this rug is as tightly woven as her life story.

In a desert community called Chilchinbeto a lady named Lupita sits at her well-worn kitchen table
and shucks corn. Lupita is considered an elder, and looked upon by younger Navajos as wise. Lupita
isn't sure when her actual birthday is, but she claims January 8, 1912, because the government
assigned that day to her for census purposes.

This is Lupita's story in her own words:

"I'm Navajo. My father and mother were both full-blood Navajo. I was born close to this house
somewhere; the original home place is long gone. My father had three wives when I was born. I had
five sisters and four brothers, and I was the baby. Later my mom had another child, a boy that was
stillborn, so I was still the baby."

"We lived in an adobe hogan with a dirt floor. The fire, used for warmth and cooking, set on the
floor in the center. We were never afraid of the fire. I didn't see my father much when I was
small. He was always out working with my older (teenage) brothers. They had to build corrals, herd
sheep, cattle, horses and the goats...there was a lot of work to do."

"Mother Earth was good to the Navajos then. This area wasn't like this arid place it is today. We
grew apple and orange trees, and grapes. Corn would grow anywhere. We planted different types of
squash and beans. We used all we planted. The wool was woven into clothes and blankets. We also
used gray, and white, and brown, and black sheep for different colors of wool."

"My grandmother made pottery. I don't know where she learned it. She did not use a (potter's)
wheel, but made everything by hand. We used the pots for a variety of things, like fetching water
from the spring."

"My brothers didn't leave home until they were in their 20s. My father said they had to `know
something' first so they could take care of their families. They learned to do silver and leather
work for trading. They did good work."

"It was, I don't know how far, to the nearest trading post, but it took two days and three nights to
get there. We took a buckboard. I don't remember going often because it was such a long journey."

"Mother was a great weaver. She made clothing, horse blankets, chief blankets, bedding, wall
hangings...I never learned to weave as well as my mother. She made other things too, such as our
moccasins and ropes. The yucca plant made great ropes. We cleaned off the thorns, pounded the
leaves down to strands and braided them together. We also made ropes from horsehair (tails).
Horsehair could be braided easily into ropes and even into halters and bridles."

"We lived in camps then. Camps were families. We moved to summer homes and winter homes
following the weather and vegetation for the animals. Winter homes were usually made of rocks and
held together with adobe mud. We had cellars, too, which were storage places for the vegetables
and extra shelter. Usually extended families lived in separate hogans very close together. Often
the girls would live with one aunt and the boys with another. This was a kind of privacy because
hogans, being round, have only one room. Everyone worked together."

"Hogans are more than a house. They are the center of a Navajo's religious beliefs. Ceremonies are
always held in hogans. Hogans have one door and it always faces east to the rising sun. The Navajo
religion is termed `traditional' and traditional ways are handed down through the legends of the
four sacred mountains by word of mouth from the elders to the children. There are many stories
about the creation of the Navajo. Some are winter stories and some are summer stories. The
elders sit after supper in the hogans and tell the stories."

"Navajo's are very superstitious about death and dying. The way the dead were taken care of
depended on how the person died. When a baby was stillborn, it could be put up in a tree for the
ravens to eat -- that was what we did with my baby brother. When a person died with a disease,
that person was left in the hogan and the hogan was burned down to kill the disease. If someone
died of natural causes, he could be left in the hogan and the rest of the family would just move out
-- that is what happened to Marie's room."

"She died in childbirth and the family just moved away and left her body there. Many times if an
elder was sick and knew he was dying he'd just go off by himself. He would not want to die in his
hogan because it is a sacred place and he would not want his family to have to move. He would rather
die alone under a tree, praying."

"I never heard of measles and chickenpox until the 1920's. It was brought here by the white man.
We treated most illnesses with special herbs and ceremonies. Babies were born at home then.
When a woman was about to deliver, other women would be called in to help. A medicine man or
woman would also be called to do the ceremonies to ease the pain of childbirth. The woman would
deliver her baby by squatting over a padded hole in the dirt floor. She could be holding onto a sash
belt handing from the rafters for support. "

"Afterwards she would drink a cleansing tea and there would be a blessing. When a woman was
pregnant she was expected to walk a lot. This was done so that the baby would not get too big and
would come out easier. Navajo women breast-fed their babies and put the baby's first stool on
their faces to show unconditional love.

"After the baby was born, no matter if it was a boy or a girl, it would get its ears pierced. The
Navajos, like many Indian tribes, used cradleboards. Navajo cradleboards were made of cedar.
They were made by the baby's father and passed down from one child to the next. If a baby died,
however, the cradleboard would be destroyed and a new one made for the next baby. The next big
event for the baby would be the first-laugh party. Whomever made the baby have its first giggle
would have to have a party. An animal would be butchered and everyone would come bringing gifts to
the baby. "

"Traditionally, this is when the baby gets its first turquoise jewelry. I remember my mother
making diapers out of muslin and flour sacks. She also made the mattress for the cradleboard out
of muslin and stuffed it with a special plant. The curved board across the top of the cradleboard is
called the rainbow; it protects the baby's head in case of falling."

"Navajos are clean people. They used sweat baths to cleanse themselves because water was scarce.
During a sweat bath, hot rocks would be placed into a small shelter called the sweat lodge. The
person would go in covered with a blanket and begin to sweat. The sweat would detoxify the body.
The person would then dry off in the hot desert sand. Sweat lodges are also used for purifying
ceremonies at times.

"We did not waste any part of the animals we butchered. We ate everything we could, including the
brain and tongue. We used the intestines to make sausage. The lining of the goat's skin made good
water bags. We tanned hides for our leather moccasins and winter boots. We used the fat to make
lard and the tallow for face creams. We drank goat's milk and ground corn and wheat on a stone, and
gathered pinons (pine nuts). We even ate prairie dogs and rabbits.

"Medicine men and women are expensive. They are expensive because all their knowledge is in their
heads. When a person wants to learn to be a medicine "man": he gathers with whatever group is
teaching that particular ceremony he would like to learn. The teachings are held in the spring and
fall. They can learn such teachings as stargazing, hand trembling, and seeing, or they can learn
specific ceremonies such as blessingway and enemyway. It takes many, many years to learn all the
herbal preparations, all the chants, all the sand paintings, all the sings, and all the medicines that a
medicine man knows.

"I became a woman when my menstrual began. I could not attend any ceremony if I was having a
period; I guess I was unclean. It was after my puberty that I went to school. I was 15 or 16 when I
was taken to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding school in Chinle, Arizona. It was a
concentration camp. They would wash our mouths out with soap if we spoke Navajo. This was just
after World War I and we had to march, scrub walls, and whatever we were told to do. The boys
and girls were in separate dormitories. It was at BIA school that I learned to run a sewing machine
and read and write English. We were also exposed to Catholicism at that time. There were
missionaries who taught us about their Christian ways; I remember Father Leopold teaching me the
Ten Commandments. Today I'm Catholic and Navajo (religion).

"It was in BIA school that I had chickenpox. I hated being away from my mother when I was sick. I
had been with her my entire life. I had helped her dye wool, carry water from the spring, bring in
firewood, cook meals, everything.

"Our clan is Tachiinii which means Red Running Into the Water People Clan. A Navajo always
introduces himself to someone new by using his clan name. People in the same clan can tease each
other. They cannot marry each other.

"My opinion of men is that if they don't work, forget them. I was pregnant in 1934, but miscarried.
I was helping to move a stove downstairs and it fell on me. The doctor said I could probably get
pregnant again but it would be a long time, maybe ten years. And he was right because I was again
pregnant sometime in the 1940's. I was working in an ammunition plant in Flagstaff and I
miscarried again. I did however raise two orphans.

"In 1950 I started working for the Public Health Service (PHS). I was a liaison between the
chapters and the PHS. I took the training to be a Community Health Representative (CHR), too. I
helped bring this school to Chilchinbeto. At first we had school in a trailer that was in 1953 and then
in 1962 the brick school was built. I retired from the Public Health Service in 1970.

"The last thing I'd like to record is the story of the fall, because it crippled my life ever since.
When I was about 18 months old I fell from a tree. My older sisters were supposed to be watching
me, but I was a burden to their play so they put me in a wooden box so I would stay out of trouble. I
kept climbing out so they moved the box up in a tree. I remember falling asleep with the rocking of
the tree and when I woke up I began reaching for the leaves around me. That was when I fell. I
hurt my hip."

"My mother wanted to know what happened but my sisters wouldn't tell her. My hip swelled up huge.
And I was in such pain. There was not even an aspirin in those days. I remember my mother calling
my uncles and the medicine man. My uncles took two heavy pop bottles and heated them. The said
they had to open the skin. My uncles tied me to my cradleboard and then tied the cradleboard to my
mother. The bottles were broken and used to cut into my skin."

"My mother knew this had to be done because I was running a fever and would not breast-feed. She
knew there was infection in my hip. Afterwards they doctored me with pine pitch ointment to draw
out the infection. I could not walk for a long time and remained using the cradleboard until I was
over two years old. When I learned to walk I had a limp. I still have problems with it yet today.
Today, I have arthritis there. This is all I'd like to say. I've got a lot of work to do yet today and
I'm tired of remembering."

Below: A Navajo woman stands at the door to her hogan, 1925.