NAVAJO INDIANS DINÉ 1940s ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA EDUCATIONAL FILM AKA 47594

[Music] In a desert region of the southwestern United States in the Rocky Mountain Plateau live the Navajo Indians. The Navajos call themselves Dina, Dina, the people. Their horses, formerly used to carry them to battle. They now ride peacefully about their reservation. We follow the gaze of Tusca, a Navajo youth, and we discover a shepherdice with a herd of sheep and goats. Around their herds is centered the life of the Navajos. Even as Tusca's interest today seems centered about Al- Naba, the shepherdess, Al-Naba is hurting her mother's flock and hers. Taska and Al-Naba are betrothed. Al-Naba and her little sister go seriously about their work. The sheep and goats are of great value to them for their flesh and their wool. Each evening, the flock is brought into the corral. Two sides only of this corral need to be fenced in. Al-Naba's family is living in its winter hogan built of logs and dirt. Within the hogan, Al-Naba and her mother are preparing the evening meal. Mutton stew will be featured. Her father repairs a saddle for his favorite horse. Al-Naba's education for life is nearly finished. Learning to cook and make bread is a leading feature of it. There is a stove for heating and a fireplace in front for cooking. Taska too has work to do at this season of the year. He must help his family with the corn harvest. Here he collects the ripened ears from the stalks in the field. In the dry Navajo land, corn is planted deep in the moist sand, many stalks in a hill and the hills spaced far apart. Corn is almost life itself to the Navajos, one of their main sources of food. >> The harvest has been good. To the Navajos, Indian corn is the most important thing in life. And now more of Al-Naba's education. Preparing wool for weaving. Even the younger sister is already an expert at carding, combing out the tangled wool of the sheep and goats until the fibers are lying even and then gathering them into rolls for al-Naba. The spinning is done with a simple hand spindle. In the first step, the rolls of wool are merely joined, making a coarse soft yarn with a slight twist of hand and spindle. In the second step of spinning, this coarse yarn is drawn out further and given an added twist. Years of practice are needed to develop this skill. To Al-Naba, it is easy. In the third or final stage of spinning, the coarser yarn is again drawn down finer and further twisted into the yarn for weaving. For more than a century, the Navajos have been widely known for their colorful and durable rugs. The ability to weave fine rugs is another part of the education of El Nava and other Navajo girls. The rugs and blankets are used by the Navajos themselves or sold at the nearest trading post. As Al-Naba works, she dreams of the rewards she will get for the finished rug at the trading post. Cloth and sugar and flour, baking powder and coffee. Such virtues, she thinks, will make Tusca happy. And Taska himself, we find, is thinking of Al-Nava. He has just arrived at the Hogan of a famous silver smith of the Navajo. He is having a necklace made for Al- Nava, and it needs only a few clever finishing touches from this skilled craftsman, such as the setting of the blue green turquoise in its crescent-like pendant of silver, the tightening of the silver pendant about the stone, and it is done. A beautiful necklace of squash blossom design, symbol of fertility. For a long time, Tusca has saved this valuable blanket and this soft tanned hide of deer skin, which constitute the final payment for the necklace. Careful inspection by customer and craftsman indicate the exchange is satisfactory. A final phase of study in Alnaba's preparation for wifehood and motherhood. The infant brother has been strapped to his cradle board long enough. >> Al-Naba has learned how to minister to all his wants. >> And now an evening of gaity, a tribal dance. [Music] >> Most of the older women are watching the dancers, but Al-Naba waits anxiously for the arrival of Tusca. It is only on such occasions that lovers among the Navajos are allowed to be together or even to speak to each other. At these dances, Tusca and the other boys merely look on instead of choosing their partners. Among the Navajos, it is the girls who choose their partners for the My [Music] am higher am hey I Close [Music] by the Hogan of Al-Naba's mother, a new Hogan for Tasca and Al-Naba is being built. Her father directs the construction. Others of Al-Naba's relatives notch the logs and erect the eight-sided structure. There comes a day when nearby tribesmen begin to gather at the Hogan of Al-Naba's mother. On foot, on horseback, and by wagon, the procession streams in. They come with gifts and food. Gifts and food for the wedding of Tusca and Al-Naba. A rare treat for the feast, a quarter of beef. Then into the new Hogan, one and all crowding it to capacity for the wedding ceremony. As a very practical step, women are preparing food for the wedding feast. Beef and bread. Late comers hurry in for now it is time for the ceremony. In this ceremony, a mush of pollen meal from the corn will play a prominent part. The men are seated at one side of the hogan, the women at the other side. [Music] Water is precious. Water is pure. Taska carefully washes his hands. More water into the gourd held by Tusca. And now Al-Naba washes her hands. [Music] Al-Naba's father performs the ceremony. Tusca is to eat from the north, the east, the south, the west. Al-Naba is to follow him, from the north, from the east, from the south. from the west. And now when each has partaken of the meal from the four sides and from the center, Taska and Al-Naba are married. The ceremony is over. Tusca and Al-Naba are man and wife. The hungry guests begin partaking jovially of the wedding feast. roast beef. Bread served willingly by those in front to the others ranged in back of them. Beef and bread and coffee. Throughout the night, the feasting goes on. Tusca and Al- Naba have become man and wife. After the feasting, in the cool dawn, the guests depart.