InQuisitive: Chapter 10: Navajo

Which of the following might one be likely to see on a headstone when visiting a Native American Church (NAC) cemetery?

Any combination of these. (A cross, peyote drum, and eagle feathers)

A Diné woman undergoes a ceremony that lasts all night during which the story of Changing Woman is told. The purpose of the ceremony is to prevent illness and misfortune and to promote long life. This ceremony was MOST LIKELY a(n) ________.

Blessingway

What is a person seeking healing in a Navajo ceremony typically called?

The one-sung-over

In Oregon v. Smith, why did the Supreme Court rule that Smith's religious freedom had not been violated?

Peyote is illegal for everyone in the state of Oregon, regardless of their religion.

Navajo ceremonies are typically preformed in a domestic and religious structure known as a ____. A medicine person known as a ___ will sing for someone in need of a healing or blessing.

Hogan
Hataalii

What tradition MOST often uses peyote?

the Native American Church

According to Michael McNally, how might it harm the Diné to put reclaimed snow on the San Francisco Peaks?

Defiling the mountain disorients the Diné from their sacred space, disrupting prayer and daily life.

Because the term ___ originated with Spanish settler-colonialists, who derived it from Tewa-speaking Pueblo peoples, members of the Navajo Nation are increasingly referring to themselves in public as ___.

Navajo
Diné ("The People")

According to the Diné creation myth, where did First Man and First Woman come from?

They emerged from the lower worlds into the Earth Surface World.

Which of the following factors makes scholarship on Diné religion especially difficult?

-Many Diné beliefs and practices are not revealed to outsiders
-There is a danger of non-Diné scholars slipping into romantic stereotypes about "the vanishing Indian"
-Diné "religion" is not clearly separated from the rest of the Diné culture.

Which of the following factors contributed to the Diné adopting Peyotism?

-Peyote rituals promote social solitary and a sense of access to the divine
-Peyote was viewed as ancient and local rather than modern and imported
-Peyote has a reputation for healing
-Peyotists are open to multiple religious affiliations
-Peyotism encouraged abstaining from gambling, lying, drinking, and infidelity.

Which of the following factors have helped Pentecostal missionaries gain Navajo converts?

-Pentecostal services emphasize healing, much like traditional Navajo rituals.
-Pentecostal ideas about the Holy Spirit share similarities with Navajo belief in Holy Wind
-Pentecostal churches have Navajo pastors who speak both English and Navajo.

Which of the following were arguments that spraying treated sewer water onto the San Francisco Peaks places a burden on Diné religion?

-Diné will no longer be able to conduct their religious ceremonies, which require gathering resources from the mountain that have never been touched by human hands.
-This action is psychologically damaging to the Diné because the mountain is sacred.

In Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest Service, why did Larry Foster describe Diné medicine bundles as "our bible?"

Historically, Native Americans have only been able to gain religious rights by comparing their religion to Christianity.

Why does this textbook discuss only the religion of the Diné instead of all Native American religions?

Native American religions are too distinct to collapse into a single chapter.

A Diné medicine man travels for years to gather soil from each of the four sacred mountains. For what purpose is he MOST LIKELY gathering this soil?

To create a medicine bundle

Which of the following statements BEST characterizes the approach of the Franciscan missionaries who arrived in the Southwest in the seventeenth century?

They employed a strategy of confrontation and exclusion, demanding that converts turn back on their native cultures, languages, and kinship group.

The San Francisco Peaks are a holy place to the Diné. Therefore, they visit the peaks as often as possible?

False.

Which of the following statements BEST describes the adoption of Peyotism by the Diné?

Diné leaders initially rejected peyotism, but gradually came to accept it.

What event does this painting by Hopi artists depict?

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680

Arrange these events in chronological order, placing the event that happened first at the top.

1. The 1st Franciscans arrive in Navajoland in a failed effort to convert the Apches de Navajo.
2. The Pueblo Revolt drives the Spanish out of Modern-day New Mexico
3. The Long Walk, a forced march, driven thousands of Diné to incarceration at Bosque Redondo outside First Sumner in New Mexico
4. The Navajo Treaty ends their captivity at Mosque Redondo and allows the Diné to return from exile to a newly formed Navajo reservation in their homeland.

Which of the following was a consequence of Oregon v. Smith?

Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)

The Ninth Circuit Court was given ample information about the religious significance of the San Francisco Peaks to the Diné. Why, then, did it claim the Snowbowl project would not be a "substantial burden" on the Diné's religious freedom?

The Ninth Circuit ruled that religious exercise is burdened only when the government coerces individuals into acting contrary to their religious beliefs.

Which of the following BEST describes traditional Diné mourning practices?

Precautions must be taken to ritually protect the living from the dead.

Diné healing practices often involve a _____ who determines what is troubling the patient.
The patient may then be sent to a ____ who performs a ceremony over them.

Diagnostician
Singer

The Ninth Circuit ruled that while spraying treated sewer water onto a sacred mountain was upsetting to practitioners of the Diné religion, this amounted to "mere damaged feelings." These feelings did not rise to the level of a "substantial burden" on religion because they were based on a subjective experience. In his dissent, what was Judge Fletcher's critique of this argument?

All religions are based on subjective feelings.