external image MOKI.jpg
A blanket made by a Navajo person using the pattern called Moqui .
**http://www.navajotextiles.com/history.htm**

Dwellings
· Called Hogan’s
· Made of mud and logs
· Look like wooden igloos
· Blanket covered doorway
· Doorway faces east
· No windows
· Circular shape- represents the sun
· Centre of the roof was a smoke hole
· Had no furniture
· Families slept on sheepskins on the floor
· Belonging kept in baskets hanging from the roof beams
· Families usually had several Hogan’s in different places for uses at different times of the year

· blessing are sought when new homes were built


From the book North American Indians, by: Herman j. Viola

art.
· a holy person named Spider Woman taught the Navajos how to weave
· gave them instructions for building the looms
· Anthropologists believe that the Navajo learned to weave from their Pueblo Indian neighbours
· most important change was the introduction of wool.
· Churro sheep
· Navajo adopted wool and became a sheep-herding society
· Navajo weaving was nearly identical to Pueblo weaving
· Weavers drew their colors primarily from the natural wool
· Navajo weavers made yellow dyes from native plants, and sometimes combined them with indigo to make green
· The Moqui pattern consisted of alternating stripes of indigo and natural brown
· Turquoise has been used with jewelry by the Navajo for hundreds of years
· Navajo music is always vocal, with instruments
· holy songs, are the complex and comprehensive spiritual literature of the Navajo
· personal, patriotic, daily work, recreation, jokes, and less sacred ceremonial songs are considered popular music
· children's songs are usually about animals, such as pets and livestock
· includes anything in a child's daily life
· if the child cries, the mother will sing to it
· songs are a major part of Navajo culture


Wikipedia, last modified on 16 March 2009**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_music**
Wikipedia, last modified on 5 May 2009**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_people**