Table of Contents
In this talk, Navajo Traditional Teachings speaks from the Sedona area in Arizona. The teacher asks listeners to study the ties among families, tribes, and other groups. Families matter, and those who became this nation are described as clan families with clan names. The teacher points to people who once lived along the Mogollon rim and kept their own worship and their own holy people. Listeners are urged to learn immediate family history, including parents and grandparents on both sides, because the teacher says children are not being taught the right way. The teacher also says someone watches people by sunlight and knows each person better than that person does. The teaching says some families from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa became part of the nation and are accepted. Others, the teacher says, wrongly think those people simply vanished. Stories attached to the teachings include giant water serpents that are said not to come from this area. The lesson keeps returning to knowing who you are.
Key points
- The teacher speaks in the Sedona area and says kinship with other people and tribes should be learned.
- People who became this nation are described as clan families that carried clan names.
- The teacher says earlier rim communities had their own worship and their own holy people.
- Listeners are told to recover family history because children are not learning it correctly.
- The teacher says someone watches by sunlight and knows each person more fully than that person does.
- The teacher says people who joined are accepted as the nation, and that stories such as giant water serpents belong with these teachings.
Short quotes
We're down in an area most people are familiar with and call it the Sedona area, Sedona, Arizona.
Navajo Traditional Teachings, Navajo Teaching about Sedona
The teacher locates the talk in the place most people call Sedona. Watch at 1:10
our American Indian people, Native American people will take the time and find out their history.
Navajo Traditional Teachings, Navajo Teaching about Sedona
His hope is that Native people will take the time to learn their own history. Watch at 5:53
We came from a place where there were giant water serpents.
Navajo Traditional Teachings, Navajo Teaching about Sedona
The clan story he tells says the people came from a place of giant water serpents. Watch at 9:12
Video by Navajo Traditional Teachings. Watch on YouTube.