By Mikey Riley

Southwestern Indians Southwestern Indians are now basically any American Indian that inhabit the southwestern part of the U.S. Through highly diversified culturally the Southwestern Indians are put into four groupings. Pima, Pueblo, Navajo, and the Apache. But, the main tribes were the Navajo and the Apache.

Navajo; Early History Sometimes referred to as the Dine`. Speak the dialect of the language family referred to as Athabaskan. Largest tribe of North American Indians. Long ago, the ancestors lived in Northwestern Canada and Alaska. Over 1,000 years ago they began to travel south and reached the southwestern United States. They met the Pueblo Indians who were farmers, and the Navajo tribe began to settle near them and learn from them. The Navajo learned how to plant corn, beans, squash, and melons. They also learn how to weave, make clothing and things like art. All from the Pueblo Indians.

Navajo; Living The Navajo Indians lived in homes called hogans. The hogans consisted of wooden poles, tree bark and mud. The doorway always opened to the east so that they could welcome the sun. Hogan’s are know as traditional earth houses.

Navajo; Living The Navajo started to use the stolen animals to their benefits and they used them in their daily life. After the Spanish settled in the 1600’s, the Navajo began to steal sheep and horse’s from them. They used the sheep for its wool to make clothes, blankets, rugs, and sometimes even for food. They used the horses to travel longer distances and therefore they started trading more. The Indians made items to trade in towns, and also trading posts built on reservations to sell their handmade crafts, likes pottery and blankets.

Navajo; Clothing Navajo men wore breechcloths and the women wore skits made of woven yucca fiber. Shirts were not necessary in Navajo culture, but both men and women wore deerskin ponchos or cloaks of rabbit fur in cool weather, and moccasins on their feet. After sheep were introduced and Navajo women could weave larger woolen items, men began to wear poncho-style wool shirts, women began to wear wool dresses with shoulder straps, and heavy wool blankets began to replace fur cloaks. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, long velveteen shirts and blouses came into fashion and Mexican-style full cotton skirts became popular with Navajo women. The Navajo traditionally did not wear feather war bonnets. The men usually wore cloth headbands tied around their foreheads instead. Both men and women wore there hair gathered into a figure eight shaped bun called a tsiyeel.

Indian war bonnet

Navajo; Today The Navajo reservation is currently the largest in the United States. It has over 140,000 people with 16 million acres. Which most are in Arizona. But there are also Navajo Indians living in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. They still weave wool and use natural vegetable dyes for color. Today, people live like the old days the best they can with the modern lifestyle, but others use some technology in there living. Today, many Navajo people still have moccasins or a velveteen blouse, but they wear modern clothes like jeans instead of breechcloths and they only wear traditional regalia on special occasions like a wedding or a dance.

Navajo Reservation Ceremonial clothing

Apache; Early History The word "apache" comes from the Yuma word for "fighting-men" and from the Zuni word meaning "enemy."