this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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The Navajos are speakers of a Na-Dené Southern Athabaskan language which they call Diné bizaad (lit. 'People's language'). They refer to themselves as the Diné, meaning (the) people. The language comprises two geographic, mutually intelligible dialects. The Apache languages are closely related to the Navajo Language; the Navajos and Apaches migrated from northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska, where the majority of Athabaskan speakers reside.Additionally, some Navajos speak Navajo Sign Language, which is either a dialect or a daughter of Plains Sign Talk. Some also speak Plains Sign Talk itself.

The Navajo religion teaches that they traveled through three or four worlds beneath this one, emerging into this world in southwestern Colorado or northwestern New Mexico. The gods created the four sacred mountains–Blanca Peak and Hesperus Peak in Colorado, Mount Taylor in New Mexico, and the San Frnacisco Peaks in Arizona. The mountains serve as supernatural boundaries, within which all was safe and protected.

Scholars still debate when the Navajo entered the Southwest. Most anthropologists agree the Navajo were spread through northern New Mexico, southern Utah and northern Arizona by the end of the 1500’s.

By 1525 A.D., the Navajo had developed a rich culture in the area near present day Farmington, New Mexico. The arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century introduced sheep, goats and horses to the Navajo. The Navajo flourished and migrated via extended family units into northern Arizona and southeastern Utah. Around 1700, and possibly as early as 1620, the Navajo moved into the San Juan River area of Utah in search of pasture land for their sheep and goat herds. Because the San Juan River was one of the few sources of water in Navajo territory, many Navajo planted fields of corn, beans, and squash on its floodplains.

A conflict arose between the Spanish and Pueblo peoples known as the Pueblo Revolt. During this time, Pueblo Indians had experienced enough of Spanish oppression and fought the Spanish, ejecting them from Pueblo land. When the Spanish returned around 1680, the Pueblo Indians sought refuge among the Navajo. The Navajo welcomed the Pueblo Indians and adopted some of their cultural values.

In the late 18th century, the Spanish, intent on conquering the Southwest, were in conflict with the Navajos. The Spanish formed alliances with the Comanches and Utes to weaken the Navajos.

By the time the U.S. acquired the southwest in 1848, the Navajo were among the richest Native Americans with large herds, some of which had been acquired during raids. Due to increasing tensions with white settlers in the area, in 1863, the U.S. Army, under the command of Christopher “Kit” Carson, destroyed the Navajo’s strength using a scorched earth policy. Carson forced the surrender of the Navajo and forcibly marched his captives 300 miles to Fort Sumner in central New Mexico, a journey known as The Long Walk. Hundreds died during the trek. Thousands more died during captivity as conditions at Fort Sumner imprisonment were overcrowded, undersupplied and unsanitary.

In 1868, the Treaty of Bosque Redondo was negotiated between Navajo leaders and the federal government allowing the surviving Navajos to return to a reservation on a portion of their former homeland.

The United States military continued to maintain forts on the Navajo reservation in the years after the Long Walk. By treaty, the Navajos were allowed to leave the reservation for trade, with permission from the military or local Indian agent. But economic conflicts with non-Navajos continued for many years as civilians and companies exploited resources assigned to the Navajo. The US government made leases for livestock grazing, took land for railroad development, and permitted mining on Navajo land without consulting the tribe.

During the time on the reservation, the Navajo tribe was forced to assimilate into white society. Navajo children were sent to boarding schools within the reservation and off the reservation. The first Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) school opened at Fort Defiance in 1870. Once the children arrived at the boarding school, their lives changed dramatically. European Americans taught the classes under an English-only curriculum and punished any student caught speaking Navajo. Other conditions included inadequate food, overcrowding, required manual labor in kitchens, fields, and boiler rooms; and military-style uniforms and haircuts.

The Indian Termination Policies, an official policy directive of the United States government from 1940 to the early 1960s and directed by multiple executive administrations (both Democrat and Republican), uranium mining operations were established across Navajo tribal lands. Although Navajo workers were initially enthusiastic about employment, the U.S. government appears to have been aware of the harmful risks associated with uranium mining since the 1930s and neglected to inform the Navajo communities.

Both the open and other, now abandoned, uranium mines have continued to poison and pollute land, water and air of Navajo communities today.

Nowdays the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States with more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members as of 2021. additionally, the Navajo Nation has the largest reservation in the country. The reservation straddles the Four Corners region and covers more than 27,325 square miles (70,000 square km) of land in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. The Navajo language is spoken throughout the region, and most Navajos also speak English.

In 1923, a tribal government was established to help meet the increasing desires of American oil companies to lease Navajoland for exploration. Navajo government has evolved into the largest and most sophisticated form of American Indian government.

The Navajo Tribal Council was re-organized in 1991 into a three-branch government — executive, legislative and judicial — patterned after the U.S. Government. The Navajo council has 88 delegates representing 110 communities.

The Navajo Nation flag depicts the outline of the Navajo Nation in copper; the original 1868 reservation border is shown in dark brown. The four sacred mountains are shown in their cardinal directions. The rainbow symbolizes Navajo sovereignty, while the sun above two cornstalks and animals shows the traditional economy. Between a hogan and modern house, an oil derrick references another aspect of the Navajo economy.

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere

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[–] HarryLime@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago
[–] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But I'll have a bored ape, and you'll be serving me drinks at apefest

Maybe, but at least I won't go blind from the UV lights.

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[–] Cromalin@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

if you do a painting or set a movie in new york or anything and you don't edit it to make sure the twin towers are in the shot you are letting the terrorists win

never forget

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[–] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago

Fuck caffeine. Started drinking coffee again because I'm so tired, woke up at 2am feeling like death.

[–] GuyWTriangle@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I've befriended some German exchange students this semester and I visited their apartment yesterday for the first time and I'm not exaggerating when I say they have been in the US for months but have literally zero furniture in their apartments

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[–] ElectronNumberSeven@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Every time I go on tumblr I'll click on some random-ass blog that I've never seen before and they'll be the coolest transfem person I've ever seen with like a 95% overlap in interests with me where the fuck are these people in real life

Like I've only meet like 3 trans people irl and one of them was a girlboss who made bombs for the the US military why can't I find the cool people irl

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[–] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago

How many times are Americans going to call calls for peace un-American before realizing they're the baddies?

[–] KittyBobo@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Basically if a YouTube video is chaptered and one of the chapters is labeled "intro" you can immediately skip it and miss nothing.

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[–] Mokey@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago

Leaving work early 🤗🤗🤗

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago

Going through SF Debris Babylon 5 stuff now that I've seen it. Dude has good insight in some ways and can be funny but his overt aversion to 'getting political' is fucking hilarious with this show. He's not the worst, he'll just make a shitload of very Marxist points and make a lib conclusion or in the one I most recently saw went over how language changes can be used for manipulation and cites a positive example as replacing the term "racism" with "white supremacy" cause it's more biting and also can't be generalized in a "racist against white people" bullshit way and as a negative the shift from 'global warming' to 'climate change' or how according to American media saddam hussein used 'torture' while they used 'enhanced interrogation'. In the next paragraph he uses the word 'authoritarian' 3 times with full sincerity.

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

My office chair broke. Formally it was held together with duct tape when it broke before, now it snapped the old fraying tape, so this time I fixed it by tying an extension cord around the arm rests and seat. Works again think-about-it

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[–] President_Obama@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago

Also thonk Supposed to be flag-aroace-pride

[–] stigsbandit34z@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Honestly used to get a nice dopamine boost from TikTok, but then I realized that the algorithm often confuses fucking libertarians and communists because of nothing other than the anti-government slant. I guess they’re few and far between (think of it like scrap on an assembly line or something) but I truly despise that ideology

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[–] thirtymilliondeadfish@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

FM radio is 40% insurance ads, 5% Mikey and Simmo in the mornings, 20% avicii, and 35% phil collins and/or genesis

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[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Due to basically having the same schedule for about 2 years now and spending around 30 hours a week together I've developed a really natural comedic rhythm with a co-worker and it has dawned on me that he's Rich Evans and I'm Mike Stoklasa. He plays a put upon straight man and I play a bully in such an over the top way its clearly a bit. I get to tell people as a kid he was on an episode of Nany 911 that was pulled from air or that he can't swim, not due to lack of ability but because no matter what liquid he's in he just sinks like a stone and he just goes with it. It's pretty Raf.

[–] Moss@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Just did a bad essay squirtle-jam

Yeah prof, you're gonna read it and you're not gonna like it, but give me a good grade anyway.

[–] HarryLime@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Everybody is like "why did you post this it's so sad" whenever someone references that girl in Fullmetal Alchemist who got merged with her dog by her dad. IDK why just seems like standard anime melodrama to me.

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[–] CantaloupeAss@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I am going to post in the megathread

im-doing-my-part

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[–] stigsbandit34z@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Hey @ whoever posted all those threads curious about why young men are single and can’t get a date for the life of them, I think I have a really good anecdote for you

Was at a cafe today with a friend and introduced to someone (who I matched with on tinder multiple times in like 2020 not sure if he remembered me) and sorta forgot how to human, thus absolutely eviscerating what good vibes existed. Really am a pro at awkwardness and shoving my foot in my mouth (it’s the undiagnosed autism)

[–] 2Password2Remember@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

fam i fuckin hate taylor swift, this shit is unlistenable. girl i'm dating is huge into it and it's like knives stabbing into my ears

Death to America

[–] thirtymilliondeadfish@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

who tf was runescape posting recently wtf have you done to me

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[–] wombat@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

it is november 10 and stalin saved the world from fascism

[–] RION@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

i thought my brother texted me a pic of my christmas gift by accident so i went through this whole rigamarole of saying i got a notification but no message and airbrushed the pic out of our text history to send as "proof"... mf just sent me it again so it was definitely on purpose. i overcomplicate things blob-no-thoughts

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[–] iridaniotter@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I saw a missing person flyer posted for some guy who got kidnapped in Asia... bruh this is the United States - you're not gonna find him here!

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[–] Stoatmilk@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I really dislike the debate about the differences between Marx and Engels, even beyond Western Marxism's strange betrayal fantasies. It's always built on a presupposition that wherever a difference is found, we should automatically Marx's position as the correct one, as if he was some kind of a messiah. Maybe forming an identity around a dude's name was a big mistake.

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[–] HarryLime@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

sometimes it's like this

sdfghjk

[–] el_principito@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

I got my cats new fancy toys

[–] CrispyFern@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

I'm back, baby! fidel-cool

(I never left)

[–] artificialset@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

free iced chai latte woooo

[–] HarryLime@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)
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[–] AlicePraxis@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

men who are repulsed by women's body hair should all be thrown in jail

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[–] Othello@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)
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[–] iridaniotter@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago

People are seriously overlooking Marxism-Leninism-Trotskyism-Neo-Stalinism. (Did the EFF emote get removed?)

[–] jabrd@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Every public bathroom door should feature that little lock system that shows if the bathrooms in use or if it’s unlocked. It is a crime against me specifically for this not to be the casw

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[–] viva_la_juche@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago

my partner and I are on a road trip driving through rural Texas near Dallas-Ish and we just drove by a persons home who had a bunch of large Ron Paul election signs in their yard still lmaooo what a fucking loser that person must be

[–] Comp4@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Im having vegan pastrami - not bad at all. Funny enough I never had real pastrami so I cant compare it.

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[–] KatraCommunist@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Huh

What is the verdict on the usage of fungi in the future?

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

my desire to eat the chicken of the forest is extraordinarily high, but i don't live near amenable forest so somebody needs to figure out how to farm that shit and get it in my mouth goddamnit

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