The Navaho War Dance: A Brief Narrative of its Meaning and Practice

By Berard Haile

Explains the meanings and customary forms of the Navajo war dance, including information on the drums and rattle sticks, the progression of the dance through each of its three days, and the different roles of the various participants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Release date: Jun 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839745836

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© Barakaldo Books 2020, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

THE NAVAHO WAR DANCE

SQUAW DANCE

BY

BERARD HAILE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

DEDICATION 6

A FOREWORD. 7

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 8

WHY A WAR DANCE IS HELD. 9

WHO DECIDES UPON A WAR DANCE? 11

THE POT DRUM. 12

THE RATTLE STICK. 14

ITS MARKINGS. 15

THE STICK TRIMMINGS. 17

WHY A RATTLE STICK? 20

THE STICK RECEIVER. 21

FIRST NIGHT OF THE DANCE. 22

THE GIRL STICK CARRIER. 23

THE GIRLS’ DANCE. 24

THE MORNING OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE DANCE.—THE SERENADE AND GIFT EXCHANGE. 25

BACK TO THE PATIENT’S CAMP. 26

SECOND NIGHT. 27

THE SECOND DAY.—THE EMETIC. 28

THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE TWO CAMPS. 30

THE SERENADE AND GIFTS AGAIN. 31

THE PATIENT IS BLACKENED. 32

SHOULDER BANDS. 33

CROW BILL 34

UNRAVELING OF SLIP KNOTS. 35

THE SCALP SHOOTER. 36

THE ATTACK ON THE ENEMY. 37

SPECIAL FEATURES.—TAIL SONGS. 38

THE LEADER OF THE TAIL SONGS. 39

FACING THE ENEMY. 40

FACING THE HOGAN. 41

THE BLACK DANCERS. 42

THE HARD FLINT BOYS. 43

THE LAST NIGHT.—THE FINAL SINGING GROUP. 44

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 46

DEDICATION

To

John J. Kirk

of Gallup, New Mexico

a personal friend of the Padres

and

a staunch friend

of the Navaho Tribe

Who believes with us that

the General Public wants

Facts more than Wishful Interpretations

of

Navaho Ceremonial Practises.

A FOREWORD.

The average American wants to know what it’s all about. Are Navahos always at war because War Dances are practically a regular occurrence, say in the summer and fall months? Who is the enemy? His scalp? The author strives to give accurate information on these and other points of the Navaho War Dance.

Variations which occur on some details have been ignored as of little interest to the general reader. Our aim however has been a description of the ordinary three-night dance counting, as the Navahos do, the nights which follow the acceptance of the rattle stick. Whatever precedes this acceptance, like the time spent in building the hogan, obtaining a scalp, preparing and dispatching the rattle stick, is not included in the three nights of the dance proper.

Throughout the Navaho area the dance is known to white residents as the squaw dance. Possibly they have followed the American trend of mind to look upon any Indian woman or female as a squaw, because Massachusetts Indians called