NAVAJO RESERVATION DOCUMENTARY NEW MEXICO / ARIZONA SANTA FE RR 46024

This color film “El Navajo” is an educational documentary presented by Santa Fe Railway. It is a Telefilm Recording (a format popular in 1935-1940, and represented a motion picture created to be shown on television). The Navajo Reservation spans New Mexico and Arizona during this film’s time period. Women in Navajo dress wave at an oncoming Santa Fe train (38), whose Chicago to San Francisco route passes it (1:03). Views outside the train window see the red desert cliffs (1:27-1:44). On the Navajo Reservation, a plaque for Window Rock states it’s the headquarters for the Office of Indian Affairs. This further dates the movie between 1933-1946 as Harold Ickes is listed as Secretary of Interior (1:50-1:58). Nearby are the St. Michael Mission built in 1902 (2:11), the Indian Day School (2:19), the Ganado Mission, which housed a nursing school (2:28), and Hubbell’s Trading Post built in 1873 (2:38). Sheep provide resources and income (2:48-4:02). Shearing is shown, including branding with black paint (4:03-5:54). Soap made from the amole plant is used to wash the wool (5:57-7:25). Navajo women card, spin, and dye the wool (7:28-8:40). Hand weaving is done on looms to create beautiful rugs (8:41-10:14). A cow is slaughtered and prepared to eat (10:30-11:15). The hides are stretched; a sheep is skinned (11:18-11:59). The post office also serves as a trading post where bartering occurs (12:03-14:34). The process to make moccasins is shown (14:38-16:38). Corn planting hole by hole using a hoe is shown (16:42-17:38). Colorful harvested corn is ground into flour for tortillas fried in mutton fat; the initial woman wears a beautiful turquoise necklace (17:43-19:10). Flour is also kneaded into bread, with the turquoise jewelry still on their hands, and baked in an adobe oven (19:13-21:57). A silversmith heats the metal and pounds it on an anvil, using a sharp tool to make beautiful designs for a belt (22:13-24:12). Jewelry is used as part of the marriage proposal process between the two families as part of a dowry, which also includes horses (24:20-26:05). The sweat bath lodge ceremony is shown, including drying their bodies with sand (26:06-27:48). A baby is prepared for a nap on a cradleboard outside of a hogan, which is a Navajo home (27:47-29:14). The root of the amole makes hair shiny, which is then styled in the Navajo hourglass form on the bride (29:15-30:15). The Medicine Man performs the wedding ceremony (30:24-30:48). The Medicine Man treats a patient outside his hogan (32:23-33:06). Inside, the healing ceremony involves creating an intricate and colorful sand painting surrounded by prayer sticks and fetishes (33:10-38:50). The patient enters for treatment by sitting in the center of the painting and receiving sacred medicine before the painting is then ceremoniously destroyed (38:51-41:50). The movie ends with Navajo Indians on horseback (41:53-42:15).
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com

[@averysanty6154]

I know filming of Diné (Navajo) ceremonies is forbidden, but as a Diné trying to reconnect with my heritage, it’s heart warming to get this glimpse of the life my ancestors lived. We were forced into our own genocide when the US gov’t began assimilation tactics against us. We lived so at peace with nature, and my generation was robbed from this harmony, now that pain and suffering has spreading to every reaches of the reservation like a plague, forcing our culture into extinction, soon feeling like Greek mythological fables & epics.

[@jonhohensee3258]

What's your point, Avery?

[@averysanty6154]

@@jonhohensee3258 your mother

[@jonhohensee3258]

@@averysanty6154 Oh Averyyyy.....

[@carinarilk89]

SO TRUE!
They came, they stolen your country
they stolen your Ressources,
they stolen your Gold, Silver, Gas and Oil, Water, Trees, Horses and your INDENTITY,
they stolen your language
they stolen your tradition.
The white man isn't good. I know that, because I'm white.
Sorry to every native Americans ❤

[@navajorezathlete1202]

100% Navajo right here!!!

[@jonhohensee3258]

Here's your cookie...

[@navajorezathlete1202]

@@jonhohensee3258 thank you sir

[@user-dl4gc5fb3v]

😊😊😊​@@navajorezathlete1202😮

[@gregoryhoefer3660]

Informative and appreciated. Thank you.

[@tkn463]

I wish my family was still like this.

[@rqlr1]

Thank you for sharing this; I really enjoyed it. It’s amazing to see the creativity and resourcefulness in the Navajo. Their shiny hair, colorful blankets, and meticulous sand paintings are incredible. It’s very nice to see how much pride they take in every day living. The men and women were always dressed handsomely.

[@KeifusMathews3]

Gotta love these people

[@dannyshipley7590]

"She may have sample...some from time _2_time"
Narrator seems to handle Narrating quite well-

[@skywalker5978]

I'm 30yrs old, I remember these old ways as a child. To this day not very much is done on this video today. My Diné ways are going extinct.

[@jonhohensee3258]

Happens all the time.

[@84tonikk]

Holy moly!

[@darrenharrison1351]

From back than,All silver jewelries, blankets,rugs, baskets,potteries,medicine objects etc.,by law should be returned,not only Navajo Zuni s, Apaches, Pueblo s, plains tribes.thanks.love documents from mid 1800 to 1950

[@mrbard1]

Wow. What a bizarre realization that Im from a generation of mistreated people who had no choice but to grow up in poverty and at the government's tit

[@navajorezathlete1202]

There were many like my great grandfather and grandfather that didn't accept that and built big beautiful families and wealth.

[@prestonnelson974]

El Navajo...... lmao...

[@jonhohensee3258]

Could you imagine deer or cattle wearing shoes made of human skin?