Saturday, March 31, 2012

USA - Navajo Nation


NATIVE AMERICANS
Of the Native American tribes living within the United States, the Navajo is the largest. The Navajo Nation also possesses the largest reservation, encompassing some 27,000 square miles of land rich in oil, gas, coal, and uranium. However, true wealth of the reservation and people lies not beneath the ground, but in daily life expresses through the art of weaving, traditional dress, and dance.

Sent by Betty, a postcrosser from Italy.

This is from Wikipedia : The Navajo Nation (Navajo: Naabeehó Bináhásdzo) is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering 27,425 square miles (71,000 km2), occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico. It is the largest land area assigned primarily to a Native American jurisdiction within the United States.

 In English, the initial name for the area was "Navajo Indian Reservation," governed since 1923 by the "Navajo Tribal Council." On April 15, 1969, the official name on the seal used by the government was changed to "Navajo Nation," stating that from that day on "all correspondence, stationary [sic], letterheads [...] of the Navajo Tribe use the designation 'Navajo Nation' to locate the tribe." In 1994, a proposal to change the official designation from "Navajo" to "Diné" was rejected by the council. They said the name Diné represented the time of suffering before the Long Walk, and that Navajo is the appropriate designation for the future. In Navajo, the geographic entity with its legally defined borders is known as "Naabeehó Bináhásdzo." This contrasts with "Diné Bikéyah" and "Naabeehó Bikéyah" for the general idea of "Navajoland." More importantly, neither of these designations should be confused with "Dinétah," the term used for the traditional homeland of the Navajo people, situated in the area between the mountains Dookʼoʼoosłííd (San Francisco Peaks), Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain), Sisnaajiní (Blanca Peak), and Tsoodził (Mount Taylor).

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