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.

Early Pennsylvania German Homes

Henry Antes House (1736)

During the 1700s large numbers of Germans migrated to the British colonies. Many settled in Pennsylvania, among them my Hochstetler ancestors, who came to this country in 1738. Naturally the first necessity for any settler was shelter, so today we’re going to take a look at the typical homes of these German immigrants.

Bertolet-Schneider House (1737)

Most of the earliest Pennsylvania German homes were constructed of straight-hewn logs with finely dovetailed joints, but German settlers were also noted for their sturdily built stone houses. Many homes, whether log or stone, were constructed in a distinctively medieval form that featured steep roofs sometimes covered with red clay tiles, thick walls, and small, irregularly spaced windows. A central fireplace was most common, in contrast to the British style of construction that featured a fireplace on each end of the building.

Swiss-style House

Traditional floor plans had 1 to 3 rooms with a corner stairway that led up to a loft or second floor. The 3 room layout included a large Küche (kitchen) on one side of the central chimney and two smaller rooms, the Stube (parlor) and Kammer (bedroom) on the other side, both entered from the kitchen. The two room layout had only a kitchen (also called a hall) and a parlor, which were on opposite sides of the central chimney. The second story contained additional bedrooms and separate space for storage. An attic provided additional storage and space for food preservation.

Five Plate Stove

The outside entrance into the house was traditionally through the kitchen. Generally a long narrow room on the northwest side of the house, this space included the great, open fireplace, used for cooking and heating, a large worktable, and the dining table with benches or chairs. The main room was the parlor, heated by a closed five-plate stove, also called a close stove or jamb stove, that was a cast-iron, porcelain, or earthenware box, either plain or ornately decorated. The back side of this kind of stove was open and mortared into the brick or stones of the chimney. The rear of the kitchen fireplace, then, had an opening called the stove hole or offenloch, through which either wood for burning or hot air could be fed into the stove.

Fort Zeller

Some early stone houses were built over a spring to provide running water and a cool area for food storage in the basement. Others were built into a bank or hillside, partially underground for cold storage as well as for lower cost and efficiency, a style attributed to medieval Swiss tradition. Many banked houses were later expanded to become 2 or 3 stories with the ground floor then used only as a kitchen or for storage. On the Pennsylvania frontier many houses were fortified by adding extra thick walls and small windows as defense against Indian attack. Fort Zeller, built in 1745 near Newmanstown, Lebanon County, was actually a house built in this manner rather than a true fort. It is one of the few remaining examples of Germanic architecture in this country and is also Pennsylvania’s oldest existing fort. Pioneers who came to the Tulpehocken from the Schoharie valley built it in 1723 and rebuilt it in 1745. It was used as a place of refuge during Indian Wars.

I sometimes complain about all the household work I have to do even though I have at hand a multitude of labor-saving devices and technology to make my life easier. When I think about our pioneer ancestors, who had work to do almost every waking hour, most of it hand labor, I’m humbled and grateful. Next month I’m going to take a more detailed look at the housewife’s daily cores and the implements she had to accomplish her work. Believe me, all of us have things very easy today in comparison!

What do you appreciate the most among the comforts of your home?

~~~

J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, releases April 1, 2017. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, won the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year Award.