Notes on a Navajo War Dance[1]
The following notes were made at a dance which took place at Kayenta, Arizona in June 1914. They are somewhat fragmentary owing to the fact that features of the ceremony were going on in different places at the same time.
The sick man for whose relief the function was given, had, when a young man, looked upon the bodies of two Navajo who had been killed by the Comanche. His trouble arose from the idea that the evil spirits of these enemies possessed him, as it is said to be "bad " to look upon the body of a person slain by one's enemy. The ceremony was directed by a medicine-man who charged a large fee for his services.
The first part of the ceremony took place at a distance of about three miles from the hogan of the sick man, and had to do with the preparation of the "war wand." This wand consisted of the top of a cedar tree from which the bark and all the sprigs except a bunch at the top had been removed. About this stick tied with a deer-skin string, cut from the hide of an animal that had been strangled or smothered, were bunches of white and green sage, several turkey feathers, two eagle feathers, and a package of "medicine," nature unknown. The whole was decorated with long streamers of red cloth. This wand was carried throughout the entire ceremony, which lasted three days, by a young girl, and I saw her still carrying the wand as she rode away.
The part of the ceremony connected with the preparation of the wand that I saw, consisted of dancing by the men. The dance started about dark, continuing through the night and although there were several hundred Indians assembled at the spot, only a few took part in the dance, the greater number looking on or sleeping about the fires.
The dance consisted of singing by two groups of men who lined up facing each other, each line having a leader at the head who chanted in a high falsetto voice a verse which was repeated by his party in concert. The leader of the opposite side followed with a verse which was repeated by his band, and so on. The singing was accompanied by drums beaten by the leaders. The men in each line stood as close together as possible, the lines surging slightly in time to the drums, the dancers at times taking a few shuffling steps. Men were continually dropping out and others taking their places. Now and then I caught a glimpse of the young girl carrying the plumed wand. To all appearances the dance was a contest of endurance between the two lines of men.
- ↑ Cp. Franciscan Fathers, An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language, St. Michaels, Arizona, 1910, pp. 366-376; E. C. Parsons, American Anthropologist, N.S., vol. xxi, no 4 (1919).
