Navajo, or Dine -they call themselves, is the

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 farmers who are

known as Pueblo Indians, and the Navajo began

to settle near them and learn from them.  The

Navajo learned how to plant corn, beans,

squash, and melons.  The Navajo also began to

learn a similar style of weaving, making clothing

and art from the Pueblo Indians.

The Navajo Indians lived in homes called

hogans.  They are made from wooden poles,

tree bark, and mud.  The doorway opened to

the east so they could welcome the sun.

After the Spanish settled in the 1600’s, the

Navajo began to steal sheep and horses from

them.  The Navajo started to use the animals in

their daily life.  They used the sheep for its wool
to make clothes, blankets, and rugs.  They also

used the sheep for food.  They used the horses
to travel longer distances and also used them to
begin trading.  The Navajo began making items

to trade in towns.  There were also trading

posts built on reservations to sell their handmade
crafts, such as pottery and blankets.

The Navajo reservation is currently the largest in

the United States. 

It has over 140,000 people

with 16 million acres most of which are in

Arizona. 

They still weave from 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 modern

technology to live.