The Black Freedman Who Called a Native Nation to Jesus

   by Tom Goodman

One of the lazy assumptions of our age is that Christianity is a “white man’s religion.”


There are reasons people say this. Some of them are painful and undeniable:

White slaveholders quoted Scripture while holding men, women, and children in bondage.

White foreign missionaries sometimes confused the gospel with Western culture.

White churches too often blessed what Christ would have judged.

But history has a way of complicating our lazy slogans.

I doubt you’ve ever heard of Joseph “Jesse” Island, a formerly enslaved Black man in Indian Territory. His story begins in one of the most sorrowful chapters in American history. During the removal of the Five Tribes to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma, Native peoples brought with them the thousands of African slaves they owned. Roughly 5,000 to 7,500 enslaved people walked the Trail of Tears with their Native owners.

After the Civil War, Jesse Island was free from his Indian master. And what did he do with his freedom? He went around preaching Christ. Not only to other Black freedmen, but also to the Muscogee and other Native people.

This was no safe hobby. So many Native people were turning to Christianity that Muscogee leaders expanded their “lash laws”—punishments originally designed for cattle rustling and rape and murder—to include those who held or attended Christian meetings.

A first offense could bring fifty lashes. A second could bring one hundred. A third could mean death.

Five tribal police caught Jesse Island. They bared his back, roped him by the wrists, and hoisted him until his feet barely touched the ground. One asked where he had gotten this “new religion.”

Island answered, “In the Old Nation.”

In other words, the nation that had sold him to his Native owners in the first place.

The reply came back: “You have set half of our people to praying and this is what we are going to whip you for.” They lacerated his back fifty times—and then struck him five more times to make their point.

Here was a Black man, enslaved by a Native master, being whipped by Native police for preaching Christianity to responsive Native people.

Is your mind spinning? Are your assumptions upended?

Whatever the faults of white Christians, when those tribal police punished Jesse Island, Christianity was not functioning as the religion of white social control. It was the faith of a freedman who could not stop telling others about Jesus despite withering torture.

Jesse Island’s story does not erase the hypocritical use of Christianity by whites. It exposes it. But it also shows that Christ cannot be reduced to the worst people who exploited his name. The oppressed often saw something in Jesus that their oppressors had missed, buried, or betrayed.

Jesse Island understood that.

I found the story of Jesse Island while reading Donald Fixico’s excellent history of tribal law enforcement called The Lighthorse Police. I am a member of the Western Writers of Amercia, and I was given the book to write a review for Roundup magazine. His book is about the history of Native law enforcement, not Native attitudes to Christianity. But his account of how tribal police treated Jesse Island was compelling.

To read more about the spread of Christianity among Black and Native populations, I recommend the following articles:

• “Why the Enslaved Adopted the Religion of Their Masters—and Transformed It”
• “Christianity is Not a Colonizer’s Religion”
• “Christianity and Indigenous Peoples in Canada”

Also, check out my sermon from 2020 called “Has Christianity Been Complicit in Injustice?”

Tom

Today’s devotional is my own, but the illustration imagining Jesse Island preaching to Freedmen and Natives was generated by ChatGPT.

Free Book!

A deadly train stunt. A pistol-packing preacher. A UFO crash in 1897. A town that outlawed dancing. In Ten Texas Tales, you'll find stories like this from turn-of-the-century Texas. I mine that seam of history for my novels and for anecdotes to put in my monthly newsletter. Each month, I’ll give you nuggets of history, recommended books and films, and behind-the-scenes looks at my novels.

Dashing Through The Snow – By Donna Schlachter – with giveaway

Sleigh Ride Wikipedia

Welcome back to my final post of this calendar year. I thought it would be fun to look at some of the history behind how we dash through the snow, since so much of the music of Christmas seems to be about wintertime activities. 

Travois design Wikipedia

Horse-drawn travois Wikipedia

One of the earliest forms of transportation is the travois (properly pronounced trav-wa). The Canadian French name applies to an A-frame construction to carry goods and or people, and is dragged along the ground on its narrowest point. Native women built and maintained the travois, including training the dogs used to pull them. Aspen and cottonwood were the main wood types used, both because they were easily available and sturdy. 

Dogs pulling travois Wikipedia

Lewis and Clark both adopted the travois to carry their supplies on their westward exploration. The main difference was they used horses to pull, allowing larger travois with heavier loads. Ruts can still be seen as their paths were heavily used.

So why not use wheels? First, travois were developed before the invention of the wheel in many cultures, and secondly, the terrain was often not favorable to wheel transport. Plus, dogs could be used in areas where wheels would have caught in brush or broken on rocks. This was roughing it before there were established roadways. Travois adapted well to use on dry or snowy terrain, and needed little adaptation for the seasons.

Traveling by sleigh Wikipedia

 

Sleds, or sleighs, on the other hand, were obviously a snow or ice mode of transport. Some designs included runners that could be removed and replaced with axles and wheels, but most were a winter-season transport only. The word sled comes from a Middle English word sledde which means sliding or slider.

Depending on the size and style, they were also known as a skid or a sledge. Any type of sled can be used to transport passengers or cargo across relatively level ground. Some styles are made to go downhill for recreation. Toboggans fall into this category.

Sledges were often roughly hewn lumber that was pulled by one or two horses into the woods, and hewn trees were loaded onto it. This could be for firewood or building materials.

The origins of sledges is thought to be in Egypt and were used to construct public buildings, as these vehicles worked well on hard-packed sand. Sometimes, they rolled the sledge over a rustic conveyor-belt consisting of de-limbed trees.

Sleds and sledges were also found in the Oseberg “Viking” ship excavation. Unlike wheeled vehicles, they were exempt from tolls. 

Russian Troika Wikipedia

As expected, sleds were important in the perpetual winter of Russia and Siberia, but their use was limited to royalty and bishops. A local design called the troika uses three horses, and is attributed as being the world’s only harness combination with different gaits of the horses. The center horse trots, while the outside horses canter. Originally developed in the 17th century, troikas were used for speedy mail delivery before coming into common usage for passenger and cargo.

Dog sled Wikipedia

British explorations to the Arctic and Antarctic used human-pulled sledges, while other nations preferred dog sleds.

Kangga in Philippines Wikipedia

Many sleds can be used in mud, marshes, and even hard ground, particularly if the runners are greased. Even the Philippines, which has no snow, has its own design, a kangga, which is used in rough terrain and steep hills.

In my recent release, Sleigh Ride for Ruby, a young woman inherits her father’s sleigh business. She soon realizes that somebody in town is determined to put her out of business. But who can she trust? The Pinkerton agent who shows up on the scene? But is he really who he says he is? Check out the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Sleigh-Ride-Ruby-ebook/dp/B0D2LVRSPZ



Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for a free ebook copy of Sleigh Ride for Ruby.

 

 

About the book:

After Ruby Wakefield inherits her father's touring business, she soon learns that not everybody thinks it right or proper that a woman should run a business normally operated by a man. However, she has no choice—she cannot give up on her father’s dream. But somebody in town is unhappy, and Ruby's business falls prey to mishaps such as broken traces, injured horses, and avalanches.

Clarke Everly, a Pinkerton operative, falls into Ruby's life when he hires her sleigh to take his fiancee for a ride in the winter wonderland of Snowflake, Colorado. But when Ruby won't convey them across a frozen lake, his fiancée kicks up a fuss and leaves him cold.

Can Ruby and Clarke figure out who is trying to ruin her business? And will working together show them the warmth of love and the kindness of their Heavenly Father?

About Donna:

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers' groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. 

 

 

She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching committed writers. Learn more at https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs Check out her coaching group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604220861766651

www.DonnaSchlachter.com Stay connected so you learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive 2 free ebooks simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor

Books: Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/donna-schlachter

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=donna+schlachter

The Purpose-Full Writer: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604220861766651

Need a writing coach? https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs


Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_(driving)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse-drawn_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sled

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois

Wonderful Little Red Berries

 Cranberries by Martha Rogers

When I start my Christmas baking, one of the first items on my list is Cranberry Orange Bread. It’s been a favorite in our family and one of mine since my grandmother taught me the recipe well over seventy-years ago. When I got out that recipe recently, I began to think about the cranberries and their history. How long have cranberries been around? Were they a part of that first Thanksgiving feast?

What I found out fascinated me, and I decided to share it with our readers. I knew cranberries grew in bogs as I had seen them in Massachusetts when we were there one year. This is what they look like.

Now, I’ve learned they’ve been around thousands of years of years when glaciers receded and formed cavities in the land. 

Wampanoag People of southeastern Massachusetts annually harvested the wild berries, and although they tasted sour, they ate some of them, others they used for dye or dried them to mix with dried meat and animal fat to make a mixture called pemmican that lasted for months. Medicine men even used them in traditional healing rituals.

As early as 1550, James White Norwood wrote about Native Americans using cranberries. It is said that those coming ashore from Europe and England were met by the Native Americans bearing cups full of the berry.

Europeans who settled and explored New England in the 16^th and 17^th century were already familiar with the berries as they grew in the boggy regions of England. They called them “craneberries” because of their similarity the head of a Sandhill crane. They were also called "bear berries" by the natives because bears liked to eat them.

This is how they looked when growing in those early days in the ponds and bogs when first seen by those early explorers.  

Popular legend has it that cranberries were served at that first Thanksgiving meal in Plymouth as the Wampanoag peoples met with them, and cranberries were a part of the food native to the them. Later, in 1648, one of the early preachers, John Elliot wrote about the difficulties the Pilgrims had using their Indian friends in the harvest of the berries. The natives much preferred hunting and fishing to harvesting cranberries. A recipe for cranberry sauce appeared in the Pilgrim cookbook in 1663, and in 1667, ten barrels of berries plus other foods were sent to King Charles as a means of appeasing his anger over some of their activities. An account of Captain Richard Cobb's wedding banquet describes the meal as wild turkey served with a sauce made of wild cranberries growing in the region.

Over the years cranberries became more popular with the settlers for cooking, medicinal purposes, and for red dyes for cloth. Below is a picture of a cranberry harvest in 1880's. Under it is one of cranberries being harvested today.

By 1885, Plymouth County boasted 1,347 acres under cultivation; Barnstable County had 2,408. By 1900, the number of acres tripled, making Cape Cod a household name. “Cranberry Fever” struck and the industry boomed. As late as 1927, the cranberry harvest remained so vital to local and state economies that Massachusetts children could be excused from school to work the bogs during harvest season. 

About 90% of today's cranberries are wet-picked as seen in the picture above, but 5-10% of the US crop is still dry-picked. This entails higher labor costs and lower yield, but dry-picked berries are less bruised and can be sold as fresh fruit instead of having to be immediately frozen or processed. Originally performed with two-handed comb scoops, dry picking is today accomplished by motorized, walk-behind harvesters which must be small enough to traverse beds without damaging the vines.

Because cranberries are such a big industry today, other businesses have sprung from the popularity of the berry. One of these is Cranberry Glass which is blown with dye added to make the glass the cranberry color. When we were in
Massachusetts, I purchased a few pieces of the glass and keep it on display. 

Popular recipes using fresh or dried cranberries or cranberry sauce include bread, muffins, cookies, congealed salads, pies, and cranberry relish. The next time you serve cranberries, think of the long history they've had in our country.

So tell me, what is your favorite cranberry recipe or dish.

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author with over 50 novels and novellas in print. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas where they are active members of First Baptist Church, and Martha co-leads a First Place 4 Health group. They are the parents of three sons and grandparents to 9 grandchildren plus three spouses and great-grandparents to six. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years at the college level supervising student teachers and teaching freshman English. 

Sparking Fire on the American Frontier

by Misty M. Beller

As a writer of historical fiction, I've always been a little fascinated by how people had to light flame before the invention of the friction match we use today. 

(By the way, the first "matches" were actually invented all the way back in 577 AD using sulphur, and various versions of sulphur and phosphorus to make fire were experimented with for centuries. None were practical, inexpensive, and safe for the general public until the friction match was invented by English chemist John Walker in 1826. But that, my friends, is a blog post for another day.)

There were two main methods of producing fire before matches came into widespread use. Most of the "civilized world" used flint and steel to build their fires, however when Lewis and Clark explored the vast lands of the Louisianna Territory, they found that the natives mostly used various versions of a bow drill to spark flame for campfires. 

Versions of the flint and steel method for starting fire. From the United States National Museum (Smithsonian Institution), Washington D.C.

Regarding the flint and steel method, below is an excerpt Herbert Manchester's book, The Diamond Match Company; a Century of Service, of Progress, and of Growth, 1835-1935, which gives an unfortunately realistic description of how a morning fire was started: 

"known to the Romans and . . . developed in the Dark Ages along with hand-wrought steel for weapons and armor. The steel, which was curved so as to form a handle, was held in the left hand and struck with the sharp edge of the flint. Good tinder was very important and was made by charring lint, or other easily combustible material, and keeping it dry in a tinder box or pouch. The fire maker blew upon the lighted tinder to spread the fire and added shavings, or perhaps so-called matches, which then meant only splints dipped in sulphur. If everything went right, a fire was kindled in a few minutes, but the flint might have lost its sharp edge, the steel might be blunted and the tinder might be damp from rainy weather or merely from fog; moreover, as the fire was usually built in the dark before sunrise, which was the getting-up time in those days, the knuckles might be hit instead of the steel, and the fumes in-haled in ineffectual puffing."

If the fire was being built on the trail, add to the above image the challenges of wind and rain, and the difficulty of securing decent tinder like dried moss or shredded birch bark.

Versions of the bow-drill method for starting fire. From the United States National Museum (Smithsonian Institution), Washington D.C.

As for the bow-drill or other methods of using wood upon wood for the friction to create a spark, there were as many variations as there were people using this method to start fire. Typically a spindle about a foot long would be held upright with one end in a hole in a block of wood that sat on the ground. The base board should be made from spruce, cedar, balsam, tamarack, or similar, non-resinous wood. The string of a bow was wrapped once around the spindle, so that it was tight enough not to slip during operation.

Diagram of a bow drill designed for fire starting

With these two methods as the primary ways to build a fire, no wonder people rarely allowed fires to go out, even in the hot summer months. A fire had to be used for cooking, so banking coals, so they could be re-kindled into flame, became a carefully honed skill.

But for settlers, frontiersmen, or Native Americans on the trail, a new fire would probably need to be built at each stopping point. Especially in the cold winter months, where the campfire would serve for both heat and cooking. If a fire wasn't needed for warmth and they had sufficient cooked food, the groups would certainly not go through the effort. But hunting along the journey was usually the primary source of food, and that meat had to be cooked.

Cooking, of course, required a fire. 

***

Misty M. Beller is a USA Today bestselling author of romantic mountain stories, set on the 1800s frontier and woven with the truth of God’s love.

Her latest release, Hope in the Mountain River, is an epic journey along the path taken by the Lewis and Clark expedition—an epic journey through breathless landscapes and adventure so intense, lives will never be the same.

For a limited time, you can get one of Misty's bestselling novels free here: https://www.subscribepage.com/s8n2o1

Death in Deerfield

The Berkshires in Western, MA

By Elaine Marie Cooper

When I think of Deerfield, Massachusetts, I envision its lush woods, the Connecticut River, and the huge Yankee Candle store in the rural town. The last thing I think about is a massacre.

Yet that is the location of a vicious attack on the settlers of Old Deerfield some 300 years ago— February 29, 1704 to be exact. As so often occurs in these tragedies, innocent men, women, and children were caught in the cross hairs of a political battle between France and England to gain control over North America.

The French had the advantage of natives who fought with them. And when an attack occurred, it was bloody and vicious. 

The massacre occurred during the period of time called Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713). It was not unusual for solitary attacks on dwellings in the wilderness frontier. But a full-scale decimation of an entire village surprised and horrified the British.

Rumors had been rampant for months ahead of the actual attack. Periodically, the governor of Massachusetts Bay would send militia to offer support and protection. When no threat materialized, the military men returned home. 

The town of Deerfield, like most outposts on the frontier, was surrounded by a stockade as fortification against attack. But in the winter months, the deep snows provided easy passage over the wooden structure. The sentinel on watch fell asleep and In the early morning hours of February 29, the attack began against the 300 villagers.

About 50 French soldiers and 200 Iroquois, Abenaki, Huron, and Iroquois raided the village, killing men, women and children, then taking some as captives. The goal of the French was to destroy the English village and they carried it out in horrific success. 

Homes and barns were burned to the ground, while farm animals slaughtered and provisions destroyed. 

The owner of one home, John Sheldon, had wisely fortified the door so that it resisted the hatchet thrusts of the natives. The sharp instruments did manage to open a hole through which a gun was fired by the attackers, killing Mrs. Sheldon. The door is still on display in the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield. 

Another resident had built his walls out of brick, which resisted the onslaught of the enemy. Some residents managed to escape through a gate that had not been guarded by the enemy.

But most of the homes provided scant protection against the firearms and weapons of the attacking soldiers. While many of the inhabitants were killed or wounded, more were taken as captives to be used as ransom. 

Forty-eight Deerfield residents were slain in the attack while 112 were captured and force-marched to Canada, some 300 miles north, in the dead of winter. At least twenty of the captives died enroute, mostly women who were weak from pregnancy and childbirth and young children, too frail to survive. 

Many of the captives survived the trek. Some escaped; some were rescued and returned home; some, especially the younger children, assimilated into the French or native culture of the families who adopted them. Many books have been written about the Deerfield massacre, including 

https://www.amazon.com/Unredeemed-Captive-Family-Story-America/dp/0679759611/

https://www.amazon.com/Redeemed-Captive-Narrative-Sufferings-Massachusetts-ebook/dp/B014LB5Z9O/

https://www.amazon.com/Captive-Histories-Narratives-Deerfield-Americans/dp/1558495436/

Of note in my readings was a curious occurrence that preceded the actual attack on Deerfield. According to Herbert Milton Sylvester in his book, “Indian Wars of New England,” a historian recorded the recollections of the Reverend Solomon Stoddard: “The people of Deerfield were strangely amazed by a trampling noise around the fort, as if it were besieged by the Indians.” Some of the surviving residents reported hearing this sound a few days before the attack, but they could see no one. Some of the villagers later looked back on it as a supernatural warning of what was to come. 

Fates of the Deerfield Captives:

Total Captured: 112

Died on the march to Canada: 21

Escaped: 5

Returned by 1707: 47

Returned by 1714: 8

Returned Later: 2

Remained with French: 19

Remained with Natives: 7

Fate Unknown: 3

https://historyofmassachusetts.org/raid-on-deerfield/

 Elaine Marie Cooper has two historical fiction books that released in 2019: War’s Respite (Prequel novella) and Love’s Kindling. Love’s Kindling is available in both e-book and paperback. They are the first two books in the Dawn of America Series set in Revolutionary War Connecticut. Cooper is the award-winning author of Fields of the Fatherlessand Bethany’s Calendar. Her 2016 release (Saratoga Letters) was finalist in Historical Romance in both the Selah Awards and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul and HomeLife magazine. She also penned the three-book historical series, Deer Run Saga. Her upcoming release, Scarred Vessels,” is about the black soldiers in the American Revolution. Look for it in October 2020. You can visit her website/ blog at www.elainemariecooper.com

Traditional Navajo Homes: The Hogan

Navajo Hogan, By Kaldari - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83468044

by Kiersti Giron

While tipis are often thought of as the typical traditional Native American dwelling, in reality traditional homes vary greatly for the First Nations peoples of this land from coast to coast, from longhouses to pueblos to wikiups. In the Southwest, the Navajo, or Dine, people, whose land covers portions of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, have traditionally lived in six-sided dwellings called hogans. Hogans have a rich history of purpose and ceremony and are still quite common on the Navajo Nation today. The following represents some of what I have learned through researching my novels set on the Dinetah, or land of the Navajo, though I am certainly no expert.

The first, ancient hogans were conical structures built of logs leaned together and covered with mud—also known as a “male” hogan. However, the most

Older style earthen hogan, photo by Wolfgang Staudt from Saarbruecken, Germany
- Navajo Hogan, CC BY 2.0, Monument Valley.

familiar and well-known hogan today is the “female” hogan, a hexagonal building made of logs linked together log-cabin style, chinked with mud, and a rounded roof also formed of cribbed logs covered with dirt. Traditionally a hole in the center of the roof let out smoke from a fire below, though today it is more common to have a wood stove in the middle inside the hogan, and the hole provides a convenient outlet for the stove pipe.

Inside the hogan, the family would keep everything needed for daily life—sheepskins and rugs, cooking supplies, etc. A rug might hang over the doorway, or there could be a wooden door. Other supplies might be hung outside the hogan. When entering a hogan, it is important to walk only in a clockwise direction around the central fire or stove, never counterclockwise.

Interior of a Navajo hogan, c. 1901. By James, George Wharton - http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll65/id/14883, Public Domain

Many taboos, symbols and ceremonial guidelines surround the hogan, as they do all of traditional Navajo life. For example, one should never live in a hogan where someone has died—the hogan should be burned—or build a hogan in a box canyon or too near a river. There is also a taboo against knocking on the door of a hogan. Hogans are a central element of traditional Navajo religion; a blessing must be said by a medicine man over each new hogan before it is inhabited, and ceremonies can only be held in a hogan. 

Navajo family by their "winter" hogan, c. 1880 - 1910. A rug, a cloth belt, and horse tack hang from the outside.
By Unknown - Digital Denver Library, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

The hogan itself is rich in symbolism: the roof represents the sky, the upright walls the cliffs, mountains, and trees of the surrounding land. The original hogan was thought to be built from turquoise, abalone, white shell, and obsidian, four substances that relate to each of the four sacred mountains that guard the Dinetah. Most importantly, the door to the hogan—or to any other Navajo dwelling—must always face east, the direction of the sunrise and of blessing. This orientation toward the east can be seen in other cultures too—in the book of Ezekiel in the Bible, God even commanded that the door of His temple be built toward the sunrise in the east. Traditionally, Navajo families rise early to greet the sunrise with morning prayers.

Traditional Navajo hogans, By Terry Eiler, 1944-, Photographer (NARA record: 1497322)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain

While hogans are semi-permanent structures, the Navajo were traditionally a nomadic people. Families would often follow their flocks of sheep between several different “camps,” each of which might have several hogans for the extended family. While a newly married couple would always live close to the wife’s extended family, it was important that each couple have their own hogan in which to begin their life together.

In the summer, sometimes Navajo families would use a summer shelter, a simple, breezy structure built of branches called a chaha’oh, instead of the heavier “winter” hogan. Regardless of the time of year, hogans are very environmentally efficient—warm in winter and cool in summer.

Sunrise on Navajo Nation, seen through traditional chaha'oh summer shelter. Photo by Don Graham from Redlands, CA,
USA - 2015, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52209782

Today, many Navajo families live in mobile homes or other modern dwellings. However, it is still very common for a Navajo family camp on the reservation to have a traditional hogan, whether built of logs or concrete, alongside the main living trailers and their sheep corral. The hogan serves as a sacred place for ceremonies and as a connection to their Navajo identity and to hozho, the balanced and beautiful way of life.

Modern Navajo hogan next to family's home in Arizona. Photo by Michael Chudzik - Previously published: website: www.swtloghomes.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18737332

So, have you ever seen a traditional Navajo hogan? What surprised you about this structure? I’d love to hear your thoughts! 

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their baby boy.

Motherhood in Traditional Navajo Culture

by Kiersti Giron

Navajo women spinning wool into yarn for rugs, 1933 - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17104003

November is Native American Heritage Month, so in today’s post I’d like to continue my “motherhood through history” series by honoring Native American mothers. Women in general and mothers in particular have traditionally been highly regarded in Native American culture, often more so than their white counterparts at the time. While there are many similarities in motherhood between Native people groups, there are also differences, so I’ve decided to specifically focus on the Navajo this time, as the First Nations group I am most familiar with through researching my novels.

Matriarchal Society

The Navajo people are the largest Native American tribe in the U.S. living mostly in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. While Native cultures typically honor women, most have historically still been patriarchal. Not so the Navajo—they are a matriarchal, matrilineal society literally built around women and their families. While men still held much decision-making power for the clan, to this day familial descent is traced through the mother’s clan, not the father’s. Women traditionally owned the Hogan, the traditional six-sided log home of the Navajo, and children belonged to her and would stay with her should she and her husband separate. If she wanted to divorce her husband, she signaled this by putting his belongings outside the Hogan. When a couple married, the young man came to live near his wife’s extended family, which included relatives of her mother, though he might still go and help his mother’s and sister’s families when he could. The wife controlled the majority of the family property, owned the sheep they raised and their products, such as wool and the traditional Navajo rugs made from it. 

Studio portrait of Navajo mother and child, 1880 - 1910.
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/36990,
Public Domain

Pregnancy and Birth 

Traditionally, it was taboo for an expectant mother to prepare much for her baby before he or she was born. To do so was thought to invite ill luck upon the child. Many other taboos governed much of a Navajo woman’s pregnancy—as they do much of traditional Navajo life. For example, a pregnant mother was to avoid tying knots, as this might prove a hindrance to the child being born. This came from the story of Changing Woman, whose birth was hindered by a door being bound, and she is seen as the ancestress of all Navajo mothers. Other taboos include avoiding any contact with death or a place of death during pregnancy for fear of causing harm to the baby, or wearing masks lest the baby’s face be deformed.

Until the middle of the 20th century, Navajo babies were born at home. The birth was traditionally attended by family members, often including the father, a midwife, and sometimes a medicine man, especially if difficulty arose during the birth. Women gave birth in an upright position such as kneeling or squatting, which we know does indeed facilitate easier childbirth compared to the Western tradition of lying flat in bed, and typically held onto a sash or rope tied to the ceiling of the hogan.

As in all cultures, the birth of a baby brought great joy. This joy continued to be celebrated when a baby had his or her first laugh, with a "laughing party" where the child gave gifts to all attendees, encouraging a spirit of joyful generosity throughout the baby's life.

Cradleboards and Cliff Rose Diapers

Navajo mother and child, 1933 - 1942, Arizona. By Ansel Adams
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15848428

As in many Native American cultures, Navajo women traditionally bound their babies onto cradleboards, and the traditional craft of making these boards still exists today. The back of the cradleboard is made of a local wood like cottonwood or pine, and a thin piece of oak curved over the top of the board, handily protecting the baby’s head if it should fall. The baby was wrapped in a warm cloth with his or her arms at the side, then bound to the cradleboard with strips of buckskin. A Navajo mother could then easily take her baby with her wherever she went, propping the cradle against the hogan or a tree when working outside. Typically babies were carried in the arms and then propped up to watch the mother working more than the stereotypical image of hanging on their mothers’ backs. Many mothers would even nurse their babies without taking them out of the cradleboard. 

As babies grew a bit older, their arms might be left free if they were awake, and even bits of beads attached to the top of the cradleboard for them to bat at. (Having a six-month-old myself, I can definitely see the draw!) As babies entered the second half of their first year, at some point they would “graduate” out of the cradleboard, a decision often partly dependent on the baby’s preference.

Lamb and Navajo baby in cradleboard - U.S. National Archives
and Records Administration, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17066557

Then as now, babies need provision in the diaper area, and Navajo mothers had a creative solution. The soft bark of the cliff rose plant was shredded up in large quantities and tucked between the baby’s legs in the cradleboard, then simply changed as needed. Sometimes juniper was used instead.

So as with all the other cultures and periods of history we’ve looked at in this motherhood series, while many aspects of mothering do vary across time and place, many others—from diapering needs to our love for our children—remain the same. What struck or surprised you from learning about Navajo mothers? Please comment and share! 

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their new baby boy.