Navaho Houses, Part 2 | Page 9

the same
physical conditions, are drawing a little closer together. Under the
strong protecting arm of the Government the Hopi are losing a little of
their timidity and are gradually abandoning their villages on the mesa
summits and building individual houses in the valleys below.
Incidentally they are increasing their flocks and herds. On the other
hand, under the stress of modern conditions, the Navaho are surely,
although very slowly, turning to agriculture, and apparently show some
disposition to form small communities. Their flocks of sheep and goats
have decreased materially in the last few years, a decrease due largely
to the removal of the duty on wool and the consequent low price they
obtained from the traders for this staple article of their trade.
In both cases the result, so far as the house structures are concerned, is
the same. The houses of the people, the homes "we have always had,"
as they put it, are rapidly disappearing, and the examples left today are
more or less influenced by ideas derived from the whites. Among the
Navaho such contact has been very slight, but it has been sufficient to
introduce new methods of construction and in fact new structures, and
it is doubtful whether the process and the ritual later described could be
found in their entirety today. Many of the modern houses of the
Navaho in the mountainous and timbered regions are built of logs,
sometimes hewn. These houses are nearly always rectangular in shape,
as also are all of those built of stone masonry in the valley regions.
There is a peculiar custom of the Navaho which should be mentioned,
as it has had an important influence on the house-building practices of

the tribe, and has done much to prevent the erection of permanent
abodes. This is the idea of the tc[)i]´ndi hogán. When a person dies
within a house the rafters are pulled down over the remains and the
place is usually set on fire. After that nothing would induce a Navaho
to touch a piece of the wood or even approach the immediate vicinity of
the place; even years afterward such places are recognized and avoided.
The place and all about it are the especial locale of the tc[)i]´ndi, the
shade or "spirit" of the departed. These shades are not necessarily
malevolent, but they are regarded as inclined to resent any intrusion or
the taking of any liberties with them or their belongings. If one little
stick of wood from a tc[)i]´ndi hogán is used about a camp fire, as is
sometimes done by irreverent whites, not an Indian will approach the
fire; and not even under the greatest necessity would they partake of the
food prepared by its aid.
This custom has had much to do with the temporary character of the
Navaho houses, for men are born to die, and they must die somewhere.
There are thousands of these tc[)i]´ndi hogáns scattered over the
reservation, not always recognizable as such by whites, but the Navaho
is unerring in identifying them. He was not inclined to build a fine
house when he might have to abandon it at any time, although in the
modern houses alluded to above he has overcome this difficulty in a
very simple and direct way. When a person is about to die in one of the
stone or log houses referred to he is carried outside and allowed to die
in the open air. The house is thus preserved.
LEGENDARY AND ACTUAL WINTER HOGÁNS
The Navaho recognize two distinct classes of hogáns--the keqaí or
winter place, and the kej[)i]´n, or summer place; in other words, winter
huts and summer shelters. Notwithstanding the primitive appearance of
the winter huts, resembling mere mounds of earth hollowed out, they
are warm and comfortable, and, rude as they seem, their construction is
a matter of rule, almost of ritual, while the dedicatory ceremonies
which usually precede regular occupancy are elaborate and carefully
performed.
Although no attempt at decoration is ever made, either of the inside or

the outside of the houses, it is not uncommon to hear the term beautiful
applied to them. Strong forked timbers of the proper length and bend,
thrust together with their ends properly interlocking to form a cone-like
frame, stout poles leaned against the apex to form the sides, the whole
well covered with bark and heaped thickly with earth, forming a roomy
warm interior with a level floor--these are sufficient to constitute a
"qo[.g]án n[)i]jóni," house beautiful. To the Navaho the house is
beautiful to the extent that it is well constructed and to the degree that it
adheres to the ancient model.
There are many legends and traditions of wonderful houses made by
the gods and by the mythic progenitors of the tribe. In the building of
these