How Skin Colors Were Chosen

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This recording from Navajo Traditional Teachings retells a traditional account of how skin colors came to be. The teacher says people are offspring of holy people and that entering life was a choice. In the teaching, beings had to decide whether day or night would run without a break. Other creatures are said to have picked their colors. For five fingered people, four colors were offered because four is held sacred, with related lessons for black and for white. Elders are described as showing careful ways to see those colors. The teacher says all are descendants of first man and first woman, children of holy people, and kin both to other Native nations and to black people. Yellow and white sit in that same teaching of kinship. Recent harsh attitudes are tied to vanity, pride, greed, and hate. The teacher says Native people have no cause to feel superior, and mentions a Navajo leader of Vietnamese descent and princesses of African descent only as examples inside that lesson. Five fingered beings, the teacher says, are not different from one another.

Key points

• The teacher presents skin color as a Navajo teaching about a choice made for five fingered people, not as a claim of rank.
• Four colors are said to have been offered because four is sacred, while other creatures picked colors of their own.
• The teaching ties black, white, and yellow into one kinship and says all descend from first man and first woman.
• People are described as children of holy people who chose to come into this life.
• The teacher rejects superiority and links harsh recent attitudes to vanity, pride, greed, and hate.
• Mixed ancestry in the nation is cited to say the five fingered beings are not different.

Short quotes

And so from the very beginning we are told that it was our choice to come into existence.

Navajo Traditional Teachings, How Skin Colors Were Chosen

The teacher says the story begins with a choice to enter life. Watch at 1:29

And we are the children of the holy people.

Navajo Traditional Teachings, How Skin Colors Were Chosen

In this teaching, people are the offspring of the holy people. Watch at 6:09

We are not in any way superior to anyone.

Navajo Traditional Teachings, How Skin Colors Were Chosen

The teaching says no one is above anyone else. Watch at 8:36

Video by Navajo Traditional Teachings. Watch on YouTube.