{"id":3126,"date":"2015-01-07T13:43:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/?p=3126"},"modified":"2015-01-07T13:49:53","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:49:53","slug":"the-navajo-four-sacred-colors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/the-navajo-four-sacred-colors\/","title":{"rendered":"The Navajo Four Sacred Colors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Color In Navajo Life And Beliefs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Color has many symbolic meanings in Navajo culture; in fact, a single color can mean several different things depending on the context in which it is used. Four colors in particular <b>black, white, blue, and yellow<\/b> have important connections to Navajo cultural and spiritual beliefs. <b>These colors represent the four cardinal directions.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Color-Navajo-Symbolic-Associations-Chart-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-3127\" src=\"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Color-Navajo-Symbolic-Associations-Chart-copy-695x720.jpg\" alt=\"Color Navajo Symbolic Associations Chart copy\" width=\"610\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Color-Navajo-Symbolic-Associations-Chart-copy.jpg 695w, http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Color-Navajo-Symbolic-Associations-Chart-copy-290x300.jpg 290w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Navajos define their homeland as the area between four sacred mountains in each direction, so<b> each color represents a sacred mountain as well.<\/b> Thus, among their myriad other meanings, the colors black, white, blue, and yellow link the Navajos to their ancestral homeland and the story of its creation.<\/p>\n<p>The Navajos define their homeland as the area between four sacred mountains in each direction, so each color represents a sacred mountain as well.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, among their myriad other meanings, the colors black, white, blue, and yellow link the Navajos to their ancestral homeland and the story of its creation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Black<\/b>, which associated with north, also symbolizes Dib\u00e9 Ntsaa (Hesperus Peak), in what is now southwestern Colorado.<\/li>\n<li><b>White<\/b>, which represents east, is connected to Sisnaajini (Blanca Peak), in what is now south-central Colorado.<\/li>\n<li><b>Blue<\/b>, is connected with south and Tsoodzil (Mount Taylor), northeast of Grants, New Mexico.<\/li>\n<li><b>Yellow,<\/b> \u00a0is associated with west and Dook\u2019o\u2019oosliid (the San Francisco Peaks), near Flagstaff, Arizona<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Sacred-Mtn-Poster-1400.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2279\" src=\"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Sacred-Mtn-Poster-1400-720x523.jpg\" alt=\"The Navajo Sacred Mountains Poster\" width=\"610\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Sacred-Mtn-Poster-1400-720x523.jpg 720w, http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Sacred-Mtn-Poster-1400-300x217.jpg 300w, http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Sacred-Mtn-Poster-1400.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 224px;\" width=\"385\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>COLOR<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Black<\/p>\n<p>While<\/p>\n<p>Blue<\/p>\n<p>Yellow<\/td>\n<td><b>DIRECTION<\/b><\/p>\n<p>North<\/p>\n<p>East<\/p>\n<p>South<\/p>\n<p>West<\/td>\n<td><b>TIME OF DAY<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Night<\/p>\n<p>Dawn<\/p>\n<p>Day<\/p>\n<p>Dusk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>In the Emergence, the Navajo creation story, First Man took four stones.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>jet<\/b>, which represents<b> black<\/b>;<\/li>\n<li><b>white shell<\/b>, which symbolizes <b>white<\/b>;<\/li>\n<li><b>turquoise<\/b>, which is tied to <b>blue<\/b>; and<\/li>\n<li><b>abalone<\/b>, which represents <b>yellow<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u2014and placed them at the four directions.<\/p>\n<p>He blew on the stones four times and they grew into a hogan. For the Navajos, the hogan is more than simply their traditional form of shelter; it has sacred meanings and still plays a vital role in Navajo spiritual and community life. In the story of the Emergence, First Man\u2019s hogan became the world. First Man also created the four sacred mountains in this world.<\/p>\n<p>These are just two examples of the four colors in the Navajo creation story; myriad other references to color appear throughout this and other Navajo traditions. Given their many connections to Navajo tradition, these four colors are an important part of the way culture and spirituality is passed from one generation to the next. One venue for the transmission of culture is art, and the four colors appear frequently in Navajo spiritual objects and works of art.<\/p>\n<p><b>Navajo silversmiths, for example, can use the four precious stones and shells to connect their work to Navajo beliefs. <\/b>Navajo sand paintings are both an art form and a means of a spiritual communication that makes use of the sacred colors to transmit information about culture. For example, in sand paintings depicting the Place of Whirling Logs, the <b>white guard watches over the corn, the blue guard watches over the beans, the yellow guard watches over the squash, and the black guard watches over the tobacco.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Weaving is another important Navajo art form, and Navajo weavers choose colors based on both aesthetic appeal and cultural symbolism.<\/p>\n<p>The Navajos use the four colors in ways too numerous to list, and their meanings are frequently subtle and complex. The colors\u2019 symbolism connects the past, present, and the future of the Navajo people. It interweaves geography, spirituality, and art and encodes deep meanings into the material culture of the Navajo people. Using these colors and teaching their meanings to younger generations is one important way the Navajos are preserving their traditional culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Color In Navajo Life And Beliefs Color has many symbolic meanings in Navajo culture; in fact, a single color can mean several different things depending on the context in which it is used. Four colors in particular black, white, blue, and yellow have important connections to Navajo cultural and spiritual beliefs. These colors represent the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1006,1034,1035,1036,1037,1033,504],"class_list":["post-3126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-navajo-culture","tag-black","tag-blue","tag-color","tag-four-cardinal-directions","tag-navajo-life","tag-white","tag-yellow","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3126"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3131,"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions\/3131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/navajopeople.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}