Table of Contents
Six Fingers Xi traces the name Navajo to people he calls Anasazi. The modern word, he says, comes from an older sound tied to a lesson for children of about four. Each child was told he was like a field, and that later generations would come from him. Xi links that picture to large river bottom plots in a clockwise spiral, planted with maize, squash, beans, melons, and cotton. Because of the lesson, those farmers called his people field people. In the early sixteenth century, Spaniards arrived seeking the Seven Cities of gold and claiming land. Raids tried to drive them off. Asked who was fighting, neighbors gave the older name. Spanish letters, in this account, produced Navajo, first ending in h and later with the j used today. Xi is teaching a history of a name. He is not rewriting who the Navajo are.
Key points
- Xi says the name outsiders know as Navajo was first given by people he identifies as Anasazi.
- In his telling, four year olds were taught that they were like a field from which later generations would grow.
- He connects that image to clockwise spiral fields of maize, squash, beans, melons, and cotton.
- Spaniards seeking golden cities, he says, heard the older name from neighbors during conflict.
- Spanish spelling, in this account, produced the modern form, first with an h and later with a j.
Short quotes
they were looking for this fabled Seven Cities of gold
Six Fingers Xi, A telling of the Navajo name
He places the Spanish arrival in the search for golden cities. Watch at 2:51
Video by Six Fingers Xi. Watch on YouTube.