Shepherds in The Desert Country

        Among the Navajos, the clan is extremely important. Children belong to the mother and are said to be members of her clan. A man's clan is his mother's and one of the strictest social rules is that a man must never marry into his mother's clan, lest he become insane. When a man marries, he goes to live with his wife's family, who thank his parents for giving him to them. Even the younger Navajos who have been away to school and have grown away from some of the old teachings still follow the tribal custom of never marrying into the mother's clan.
       The house in which a Navajo family lives is called a hogan. It is located on a part of the range where the wife's clan lives. The Navajos have several kinds of houses besides their summer shelter of boughs. But they have no real villages‚ never more than three or four hogans are clustered together. In this respect, the Navajos are quite different from most of the other natives of North America. There can be no Navajo villages because most of the Navajos are shepherds and, in the desert region where feed is always scarce, they must move their sheep frequently to new pastures.
       The Navajo summer home is moved often from one grazing site to another but the winter home may be used for several years. However, should a death occur in a Navajo hogan, their people will not live there and they either abandon the hogan or burn it. The new home will be located somewhere near the old one.
       Navajo families usually have more than one building on their homesites. There is often an extra house for storage purposes. Sometimes there is a house where the women can weave or sew. A short distance from the main dwelling there may be one or two small houses in which the Indians can take sweat baths. There are also storage dugouts and a corral for the animals.
       Most of the Navajo dwellings have a smoke hole in the roof and a blanket-covered doorway facing east. A traditional Navajo house is usually made of pinyon logs, boughs, and cedar bark. After the logs have been laid, the cracks are chinked with mud. The floor is dirt. The house is a crude affair and can be built in a day. It is said to be comfortable - warm in winter and cool in summer. Usually the neighbors help to build the house and so the cost of the new home is only the expense of feeding the helpers. But to find enough wood in the desert country to build the house takes considerable time and work. by Roberta Caldwell.

A blanket-covered doorway faces east.

Stetson Stories: Navajo-Churro Shepherds.