Introduction
Hamá hólǫ́ǫgo Hamá hólǫ́ǫgo 'ayóo jóníigo, 'ayóo jóníigo; t'áá bee hojílį́į łeh
Níítáá Diyin nimá t'áá kwiijį' bee hił niidlǫ́ǫ doo bee naa 'ahééh nidzin
Baa kodóó nenijį' yoołkááłjį' nihimá t'áá Diyingo t'áá nihá bik'i naajídłį́į doo
When you have a mother, you love her so and it makes you strong
Heavenly Father, we are here with our mother and we are thankful
From Earth, through the day, keep our spiritual mother among us
I am a Diné teacher and I want to work with my Diné students who are now coming to school with English as their first language and little or no familiarity with how to properly introduce themselves. For non-Dine, it may sound so basic to introduce yourself, but within our Diné culture, kinship creates the balance to maintain the harmony between you as a human being and with the Holy Beings. Our children today do not know what their self-identity consists of and how unique they are. With little or no knowledge or understanding of their history, language, culture, and disciplines, they are unbalanced, and that is what we see among our people who are like wanderers or lost psychologically. My father always says, “If you don’t know who you are, you will wander the Earth without knowledge of who your family is and where you come from. If you know your clans then you are rich Diné, because now you have disciplines that will get you far, you will see how big of a family you have that you can reach out to and help you when you psychologically and physically. Once you learn your clans, you have acknowledged and identified yourself to the Holy Beings to walk in harmony with.”
Among the Diné people, when a child is born he is given a name in Diné along with his four sacred clans that are passed down through his matrilineal side of the family to identify him as a warrior, a Holy Being. The main four sacred clans were created from the Holy Being Changing Woman, ’Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé. Changing Woman took parts of her body to create these clans along with using Mother Earth, nahasdzáán, for the rest of the other clans. Clans are the connection to family as it creates a Diné child as a Being among the Holy People on Mother Earth. The stories of clanships have long been taught in the same way that was taught to me through oral stories, but today we have many that are written down, recorded books or online.
Teaching of the clans is usually provided by the parents, elders, Diné shamans in the family, or by teachers at school. We all deeply depend on our oral storytelling to express our identity as a human being and as a Holy Being. The stories of the creation of clans from our Diné culture gives us an understanding of who we are and how we are shaped in our life to live through many identities. At the end we don’t identify to only ONE identity, however, through these main Diné deities Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, First Woman, Áłtsé Hastiin, First Man, Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé, Changing Woman, and the Twin Warriors; Tó Bájísh Chíní, Child Born of Water, and Naayéé Neezghání, Monster Slayer. A self-identity is critical during Diné ceremonies, starting a relationship with a partner, and at any vibrant family gatherings, such as during the Navajo Nation fairs or family celebrations. These immediate family and non-family gatherings create the family bonding through their clans. In the past, among the Diné people it wasn’t very common for people to include their name when they met new groups of people. Often, it is more relevant to state the clans and the places you are from that automatically connect the families you are each from and that starts the conversation of how they are related to each other.
All these parts of introduction define me as who I am and where I come from all in ONE. Not only do we correlate with the Holy One, but we are also individualized with that one Diné name in the real world and in the spiritual world. It’s like a key to the universe to be among the Holy Ones. The parents are identified as our makers to this world, but it’s their clans that are the vehicle to connect all us to family in the inner circle and to the outer circle. In addition to our clans, we introduce ourselves by the location we come from: the location gives us a place where we can call home and always come home to. These also teach us our discipline to understand our lineage and culture. As a baby girl is born, her clans will always be passed on from female to female. If it’s a boy, then he does get his mother’s first clan, but when he has a child, his wife will pass on her first clan to the children. By the fourth generation, none of the father’s clan will be alive. This is the reason why we revere our females and help our kids understand the importance and the cycle of life through clans.
Overall, we as Diné teachers have every opportunity to help our children learn their Diné language, culture, and disciplines. This unit is only one step towards each of aims through the learning of their self-identity of how to properly introduce themselves. The Diné Creation has rich in-depth stories on identity from different point of views within the four worlds and among the Diné deities. Usage of the Diné Creation stories are vital to understanding how the Diné clans were created and how the students will implement their introduction of themselves in the “Shi” book.
Comments: