At a recent show that I played, a woman approached me after the show about my song, "Black Gold", which is about a Navajo woman in Arizona. The concert guest told me that she herself was of Native American descent, and that her understanding was that the word Navajo meant horse thief, and that the Navajo people called themselves Dineh, and didn't like the Navajo moniker.
This was a bit unsettling for me, as I've been playing the song for about 16 years around the world, and it's gotten a fair amount of radio exposure as well.
Link to music player. Black Gold is #13I went to work researching, to see if I should change my lyric, and make sure I wasn't offending someone where my intention was confer respect and solidarity.
What I have found is that the Navajo do indeed call themselves Dineh, which means "the people." The word Nabajo comes from the Pueblo people, and refers to the landscape of the people, fields meeting ravines, and maybe also refers to their agricultural leanings. The Spanish later adapted their word to the current Navajo.
I also learned that the Navajo don't necessarily want to be called Dineh by non-Dineh people, as mentioned by the Navajo writer in the article below.
I am glad to have done the research and learned more about the origins of the people and their names. I have decided that the lyrics to Black Gold will stand as written.
Article by Rno Yahze of the Dineh Nation, from dinehfellowship.com:
(And a good story.)
Navajo or Dineh (Dine)
When I was a kid, I ask my mom one day ' Mom, what does Navajo mean' and she answered '
it means thieves'. 'Thieves...' I wondered. 'How come?' I continued to ask ' Well, the white
people call us thieves because when the wagon trains use to go by, we use to go in and steal
from the wagons.' 'Oh, I see' I said.
Well, this conversation stuck in my head for a long time and I, sort of, accepted the fact that
this is what the word 'Navajo' meant. It bother me a little, but not to a point of disappointment.
Until the word 'Dineh' became the preference of what the Navajo should be called. I figured
that maybe it is because, our tribe did not want to be known as thieves. So, I went along with it.
Until one day I heard the word 'Dineh' coming from a real German coworker. It sounded
awkward. I told him, call me Navajo. I am fine with that. After that, I became sensitive to the
word 'Dineh' and soon became determined on why we should be called Dineh, instead of Navajo.
So, to find out, I started researching for answers from a reliable source - 'Tony Hillerman'
books (God bless his soul).
Well, after reading most of his books, the only thing I got out of it was that the Navajos were
known to the Paiutes as 'Sharp knives'. I said 'YES' and I was on a high horse. I had found
out the meaning of 'Navajo' and its meaning was that, we were warriors and not thieves. Soon
after that, I was hosting a Native American culture booth at a local city diversity event and I
met a man of Mexican descent. We start talking and he said he knew what the word Navajo
meant. I asked ' What does it mean?'. He said, it is a Spanish word for Sharp Knives -
'Navajas'. Well now, I was on a real High White horse. I was for certain that Navajos were
warriors. I was happy, but to confirm this, I went to a different source: the internet or another
words 'I googled it'.
Before I googled it, I was reading a lot of books. And in one of those books, a journal from a
Franciscan Priest wrote a phrase that struck me. It was 'Apachu de Nabajo', hmmmm..... I
thought. 'Apachu de Nabajo'. I knew Apache was a word for enemy from the Zuni, So, I said to
myself, ' Apache what?!? Turns out, from the books that I've read and googled, Navajo
originated from this term - 'Nabajo'. Nabajo means ' cultivated fields' or ' a place near a canyon
with cultivated fields' in the Pueblo language. So, the Pueblos named us ' Apaches that farm or
Apaches with cultivated fields'. This made more sense to me. Later, the Spanish drop the
'Apachu de' and called us 'Navajo'. So, there you go, another latin word that originated from
Greek ( ahhh...yeah..riiiiight). Personally, I am okay for being called a 'Navajo', but if an elder
of the tribe is speaking to me in Navajo and I asks me if I am 'Dineh', I am honored and
humbled.
Now that I think about it....I wonder if Tony Hillerman knew that Mexican guy...............
hmmmm.............I wonder.
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