Gerald Hausman - Meditations with the Navajo: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony

MEDITATIONS WITH

The Navajo

Prayers, Songs, and Stories
of Healing and Harmony

Gerald Hausman

Bear & Company

Rochester, Vermont

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Gerald Hausmans Meditations with the Navajo is a collection of tales, poems, and meditations capturing the essence of the Navajo peoples way of life. There is the story of Changing Woman, the godlike ancestress who teaches the people how to live. Changing Woman finds her counterpart in the White Buffalo Calf Woman of the Sioux Nation, bringer of the Sacred Pipe and instructress of how to do things right, symbols of the power of women in Native American mythology.

There are stories of the Holy People, of First Man and First Woman; of Old Man Coyote, the artful trickster; of healings done by hand tremblers and stargazers; of creation and destruction, birth-giving and death. Witchcraft also.

Some of the tales are influenced by legends of non-Navajo tribes, particularly the Pueblos. One story about throwing eyeballs around has its origin in a Cheyenne tale in which Veeho, the schemer, is tricked into hurling his eyeballs into a tree. Another tale, about the Paiute prophet Wowoka and the Ghost Dance, is the fruit of the authors imagination.

Meditations with the Navajo is a work refreshingly unlike many others dealing with Din mythology. It is free of the anthropologists specialized verbiage. It speaks to people, not to the professional ethnologist. Its structure is unique. Tales in the form of poems are followed by meditations which explain and instruct. Many stories are alive with the authors personal involvement.

Navajo myths are among the most poetic in the world, full of dazzling word imagery. Hausmans meditations are likewise sheer poetry traveling on sunbeams, about men who cup stars in their palms, having their bare feet tickled by snakes tongues.

The tales are, at the same time, traditional and untraditionalNavajo myths seen through the authors eyes, or rather felt by his heartto which he gives an intensely personal, going-beneath-the-surface interpretation which provokes and beguiles.

Richard Erdoes,

coauthor of Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions and Lakota Woman

INTERPRETING NAVAJO STORIES

I am continually amazed at Gerrys ability to grasp the insights and interpretations of the intricate meanings behind the stories told by the Navajo. In his new book, Meditations with the Navajo, he again brings forth deep mental reflections on the Navajos psychological perceptions of their nature and wisdom.

I must point out that, in some cases, a legendary or mythological version of a story may differ among various Navajo storytellers. However, they are all fundamentally the same, with the same concluding moral or lesson. I have sat with different storytellers, in particular, Navajo medicine men, who would exchange versions of the same story. One would state how he was told the story, and upon the oral conclusion of his version, he would ask the other person how he heard the same story. In this way, they would exchange story versions, which in itself is an educational process for the entire audience. It is interesting to bear witness to such a dialogue because there are no disputes or disagreements about the storys versions between the two storytellers. Each storyteller is respected for his knowledge and perceptions; whereas, among the non-Indians, there is always a precision to detail, accurateness, and competitiveness attributed to their literary works.

I have known Gerry for approximately twenty-five years, since our early days in college, and I have seen him mature steadily into a prolific writer on Indian literature. I feel he has once again caught the spirit of his quest in this new book.

Ray Brown,

Navajo friend of the author

AUTHORS NOTE

When I first began this book in 1974, I had helpa lot of itfrom a number of talented women, but especially my mother, whose first sacred prayer rug, now more than fifty years old, is never far from my sight. Her heritage, her love of native ways, was always in her eyes and skin and hands. These she passed on to me, and these now belong to my two daughters, Mariah, the Wind, and Hannah, the Earth. The other important female presence in this book is Alice Winston, another writer-member of our family, who still walks on tip-toes, barefoot, while singing her morning songs. She is responsible for researching some of the meditations in this book. Thanks to Alice, to Joogii, to Ray Brown, his wife Ethel, their son Gerald, and Gerry and Barbara Clow.

Portions of this book originally appeared in Sitting on the Blue-Eyed Bear (Lawrence Hill & Co., 1975/Sunstone Press, 1980); No Witness, (Stackpole, 1980); and Aasazi Honey, (Longhouse, 1980).

Changing Woman

Changing Woman was born of Horizontal Woman and Upper Darkness. Found on a mountain top, she was taken home by a stranger. In twelve days, she was a big girl. In eighteen days, a complete woman. This is what she said.

I am called Peach Blossom. On this night, all in the hogan stay awake until the dawn, when the singers of songs sing the Dawn Songs of Changing Woman. Now the curtain of the hogan is torn aside and I run out toward the south for half a mile. Six young men follow me and pretend to race; I know I will beat them and this will bring much good luck. When I return, the ashes are blown off the corncake and a woman cuts a circle out of the center and divides it into parts. I take one and present it to Boy-Who-Looks-Down. He avoids my eyes, but he accepts the corncake and takes a small nibble of it. Now the sun is risen. I am a Woman.

Changing Woman Said It So

Changing Woman is not changing her hair

to suit the times. She wears it long

when it rains. Her black hair rains down.

Changing Woman wears her heart where

her People can see it. She has bled

for centuries of love, none of it wasted,

none of it lost. Out of her hearts blood,

the corn grows green.

Changing Woman is White Shell Woman.

She lives in the Pacific

where Sun Father shines.

She gives us her blessing,

these little shells

we wear on our neck.

Changing Woman wears white when it is cold.

In winter we walk softly

upon her snowy skirt. Those who leave

hard tracks upon her do not

receive her blessing. Those who take

from her, rape herspoil her

goodness. Those who steal

her treasure out of the soil

cannot know the beauty of

Changing Woman; nor can they harm her.

For her loyalty

is beyond our measure.

Changing Woman does not hear

your curseyou who swear upon

her name, you who take your own

womans name in vain, you who

do not love the life she has given.

It is a sin to swear at that which

made you: you curse yourself.