Articles from the Archives — Navajo RSS

From the Undivided Spiritual Realm to the Physical Symbol: Recognizing Depth and Resonance Through Robert S. McPherson's Dinéjí Na `Nitin: Navajo Traditional Teachings and History   For the Navajo, the world and all being are first conceived and created in the spiritual realm. According to author Robert S. McPherson who has studied the Diné for over thirty years, listening to their lives and stories, the gods first “formed the earth spiritually . . . before it was made physically” (4). The physical realm conceived by these “holy people” is then an expression of that original, constant and real metaphysical expanse that continually operates as the universe. To them, these holy people are present with only a slight separation. What is known physically is a literal...

  Working on the Railroad, Walking in Beauty:  Navajos, Hózhǫ’, and Track Work by Jay Youngdahl, 2011, Utah State University Press, Logan, Utah 84322-3078, USUPress.org.   A vast richness of experience is lost in the world view that believes there is nothing to know from primitive or natural cultures.  This book demonstrates many necessary truths about how humans cope with existence, and sometimes—rarely—find a way to ascend towards beauty despite extreme physical and psychological hardship. This is a book about Navajo railroad workers and their attempts to hold onto the important way of life, the Navajo way, of “walking in beauty.”    It may be not readily assumed that a book about railroad workers could reveal something every human would benefit to know....