The blessings of a Diné family

April 17, 2008

Cameron Johnson, a fellow student at Haskell, has befriended me and introduced me to his Diné family while explaining his traditional upbringing with his elders at Steamboat Canyon, Ariz.

Cameron lived with Leo Smith, his chei, in a hogan. Cameron was taught by example to live a good life with traditional Diné values exemplified by his chei.

I asked to spend spring break at Leo's hogan at Steamboat and Cameron's family graciously allowed me to be a working guest.

Traditional Eskimo family life in northwest Alaska is similar in many respects to that of the Diné people. When I sought to find my culture in Nome, Alaska, my ahna (grandmother) and family taught me how to live in a cabin at minus-20 temperatures with an outhouse and no running water or electricity.

They also taught me to help hosts with gas money, groceries, gifts and chores. I sincerely followed these principles and I am very grateful for Cameron's family's openhearted patience with me as I struggled with the chores.

Quyana (thank you in Eskimo), to Cameron's family and I pray to my Creator for their continued well-being as a strongly bonded, Diné cultural extended family.

At Steamboat, cedar wood crackles and blazes brilliantly with crimson red and bright orange flames in the woodstove in Leo's hogan. A nearly full moon has just set. Dawn illuminates the violet hues of night's darkness with the soft, gentle tones of a golden rose.

Sunlight greets my spirit as it rises in the east, the same direction the door of the hogan faces. It's time to turn off the kerosene lantern, chop wood, haul water, and feed the animals.

Chei's history

Juan Joe was born on May 6, 1938, but the U.S. government renamed him Leo Smith and told him his official birthday was May 6, 1940. His grandmother owned about 700 sheep and 500 goats, which Leo helped take care of.

Her advice was, "Don't drink alcohol and you will live a long life."

His nal’ never drank and she lived to be 97 years old. If you do drink, the Creator will take the air away from your lungs and you will die. In addition, Leo's nal’ told him to always respect women by not hitting them and marrying only once for life without divorce.

At age 16, in 1953, Leo left the Diné Reservation to explore the world. The Silver Spurs Café in downtown Jackson, Wyo., employed him as a short order cook. He soon earned enough money to buy a Model T Ford for $35. The Ford had wooden wheel wells and a crankshaft to start it.

Six months later, he sold it to a white man for $600. The head cook gave him a 1954 black four-door sedan with the hump between the seats (housing the transmission driveshaft) out of appreciation for his hard work, friendliness, and character. Sporting new wheels, Leo cruised to Cleveland, Ohio.

In Cleveland, Leo befriended a local man whose family owned a farm, hotel, and six cafes. Leo processed and distributed payroll checks to the employees.

Vacationing with the family, Leo drove a dark green 1956 Cadillac for a week's visit to Mexico City and flew to Germany for a two-week visit.

Returning to the rez

Leo Smith returned to the rez where his nal’ encouraged him to pursue his education at the Intermountain BIA School in Brigham, Utah, where he graduated in 1958.

In 1959, he returned to the rez and worked on the Transwestern pipeline for one month. He moved to a community in LA called Glendale, Calif., and met his future wife Bernice in 1961. They married in a Catholic church in 1962 and moved back to the rez in 1966.

At that time, the BIA had a vocational training relocation program wherein the BIA paid for a train ride from Gallup to Dallas and a month's apartment rent. This program also found employment for Leo, but his brother-in-law had hooked him up with a job at the Long Mile Rubber Company.

In 1971, Leo and his family moved back to the rez where he commuted to a construction job in Albuquerque. In 1973, he worked in the kitchen at the Toyei BIA K-8 school. This started his 21-year BIA career that included being a school bus driver.

Leo's children are Bernadette, Bernida, Bernita, Francis, Pat, and Franklin. Anthony is Leo's stepson.

Common threads that weave through his children's lives are positive attitudes towards hard work, acceptance of occasional difficult circumstances, drug- and alcohol-free lifestyles, and fluency in the Diné language.

Their homes are neatly organized and vibrant with playful toddlers, caring older siblings, and generations of closely bonded extended family members.

Wood gathering for the wood stoves and hauling water from communal wells are responsibilities shared by all. Late model pickup trucks are their preferred mode of transportation for traveling the great distances between their homes, jobs, and business affairs.

The Kinaalda

On Wednesday, March 19, Francis Smith's 11-year-old daughter Natanaba began her four-day Kinaalda. This ceremony is held after a girl's first menstrual period and it blesses her journey into young womanhood.

Natanaba had to run several times a day, accompanied by members of her family, to build strength and good character on her journey towards womanhood.

Tanaba's mother and other women made mutton stew, fry bread, sage tea, and other yummy foods, while Bernida made a most delicious potato salad. The women assured that the multitudes of guests to the ceremony would be welcomed and fed throughout the next four days.

Meanwhile, we men chainsawed cedar and pinon trees by the truckload for firewood, chopped the wood, and hauled water. K-Chee is an elder who wears a Kansas City Chiefs baseball cap, hence the name "K-Chee." K-Chee smiled while he effortlessly handed me log after log of firewood as I struggled with sweat pouring down my eyebrows to keep up with his pace.

We also dug a pit that was perfectly round, two feet deep, and perfectly level on the bottom. A continuous fire was made and kept lit in the pit so that the ground would be properly heated by Saturday when a Navajo cake would be baked.

On Good Friday, Leo butchered a goat with my help and several family members. As the goat was strung by its hind legs on a tree branch, Leo instructed me, "Thomas, hold this up!"

I grabbed hold of the skinned goat and Leo cut a bloodline that spattered onto my jeans and shoe.

"Don't stand there, stand here!" Leo barked.

Mutton stew never tasted better, but I passed on the liver that the kids really seemed to enjoy.

After several truckloads of firewood, barrels of water pumped by hand, and meals prepared by the women, the main ceremony began on a full-moon Saturday night.

Working together

Medicine man Donald Wilson led the ceremony in the hogan with words of encouragement to Tanaba. He had performed his first traditional Diné ceremony at age 12 and was taught to be a medicine man by his elders.

He told Tanaba that her life was open before her and she could accomplish anything that she puts her mind towards doing. He advised education and experience could bring her far. He did not have education, but his experience as a Korean War combat veteran had taken him around the world.

The reverence for this ceremony by the friends and family present in the hogan was multiplied by the participation of four generations of people working together as a strong Diné community.

Kaylin, Tanaba's 9-year-old cousin, possessed a thorough knowledge of the meaning and semantics of the ceremony. All of Francis' siblings, in-laws, parents, and their families came together and participated in the all-night singing and baking of the Navajo cake.

On Easter Sunday morning, Tanaba stood transformed into young womanhood in the hogan surrounded by supportive friends and family. She held a grass-weaved basket that was used to bless the gifts to the friends and family. Everyone got a sizeable chunk of Navajo cake and other gifts. Hugs and blessings were given.

Medicine man Donald Wilson told me that Tanaba's ceremony was especially powerful because Leo and his entire family, along with Francis' wife's family and friends in the community worked together to carry on Diné traditions. This powerful and positive influence helps combat social ills familiar to all Native people, like drug and alcohol abuse.

I am honored to experience the Diné traditional culture and family life and I pray for many blessings for Cameron Johnson, Leo Smith, and their friends and family.

Quyana.

Mazonna is Inupiaq Eskimo from Kotzebue, Alaska, which is 31 miles above the Arctic Circle on the Bering Sea. He is employed by Doyon Native Corporation at the Prudhoe Bay/Kuparuk oilfields in northern Alaska. The company is allowing him to to pursue a business management degree from Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. During student vacations, he returns to work in the oilfields and when he gets his degree he will become a manager in the company.

Back to top »