Category Archives: Geographical Region

Now with all this fighting and the Navajo coming in around them, the Hopi were always thinking of their boundary lines and of how they should be marked in some way. But how? What sort of a mark could they put that would be respected by other peoples? It must be something that both the Hopis and the Navajos would remember.

So just at this time there were two men at Walpi who were rivals over a woman named Wupo-wuti. Now both these men were looking for a chance to show this woman how brave and strong they were. Finally they thought of this boundary line and the “theory” of the their people that it should be marked in such a way that everyone would always remember. So these two men thought that this was a chance for them to prove themselves and to really do something for their people at the same time. They thought they would plan a fight with the Navajos as near the boundary line as they could get and there they would sacrifice themselves³² and leave their skulls to mark the line. In this way they thought that they would prove that they were brave and good fighters and they would really be doing something for their people, and so it was agreed upon.

Then Masale (feathers crossed) said they would go to Fort Defiance. So they both made an agreement that they would go early in the fall. Tawupu (rabbit skin blanket) thought they were going alone, but later he found out that there was going to be a party going over. He thought they were sacrificing too many lives, but, of course, he had made the promise to this other man so that he could not tell on him or give him away at that time. The crier made an announcement that whoever wanted to go to Fort Defiance with this party was welcome, and that they must prepare themselves and be ready to go soon. Masale has a son named Hani and he loved him, so he thought that he would take him along. He figured that if he should be killed it might be best for the boy to die also. Of course, this being a time of war, everyone was asked to take his bows and arrows along. Masale asked his boy to come along and to be sure to make some new arrows. The boy, of course, being ignorant of his father’s plans, was glad to go with them.

By this time the people had found out that the two rivals were going together to Fort Defiance, and they figured out that there was something going to happen – that they were going out to give themselves away, or sacrifice their lives.

The morning of the day they were starting out, one of the relatives of this boy, Hani, asked him if he was going along with his father and he said he was. This man said to the boy that it would be better for him not to go with them. But Hani said he was all ready and the man, being his father, he was going along with him.

“Well,” this relative said, “if you are, I will warn you right now. Wherever you camp you want to be sure where you lay your weapons or your bows and arrows, for your will be in danger.” He told him never to lay his bow and arrows under his head, but that he must lay them at his feet. “Because,” this man said, “if you are lying on your back with your bows and arrows at your feet and you are waked up suddenly you will jump up forward. Having your weapons there at your feet you will lay your hands on them every time.” He also told him that he must try not to sleep too soundly; that he must remember he was in danger all the time.

Hani, after getting his warning, started out and was the last on to leave. At that time the trail was through Keams Canyon. When he was quite a ways through the canyon, an eagle flew over his head and it was flying low. He thought that if the eagle settled down somewhere on a rock he would kill it and take the feathers along in case he wanted to make some more arrows on the way, so he kind of hid himself in the brush. Finally the eagle landed on top of a rock and Hani crawled toward him and took a shot at him. He did get him and the bird fell from the rock. Hani ran over to the place and found that his eagle was a buzzard. This seemed kind of strange, for he really had seen an eagle. That made him sort of suspicious. He thought it might be a warning or witchcraft, but as he was on his way already, he couldn’t very well turn back. Well, finally he came up with the party, in the late afternoon.

That night when they made their first camp he had the warnings in his mind and he couldn’t sleep. Anyway, he must have fallen asleep for a while and when he opened his eyes he was wide awake. He heard two men talking but he didn’t make any noise and pretended he was sound asleep. He recognized his father’s voice and also the voice of the other man, Tawupu. He overheard Tawupu asking his father why he had brought his boy along and his father said he couldn’t very well leave him behind because he loved him so dearly. He said that if his boy should refuse to come along with him he would back out too, and he said it would be better for both of them if they got killed. When the boy began to move the two men rushed back and crawled into their beds. Now, after Hani had overheard what the two men had said, he couldn’t sleep.

From then on the boy was rather uneasy every night when they made camp. After they lay down to sleep he’d keep awake quite a while because he knew, then, what the two men were up to. All the rest of the party didn’t seem to know anything about it. They were ignorant of the plans of the two men.

After several days on the road, they finally reached the place – Fort Defiance. There they were welcomed by the white man and were asked to stay several days with them. There were twelve or fifteen men in the party. Four being sacred number of the Hopi, they decided to stay four days. On the fourth day, when they were getting ready to go back home, the Bahana gave them flour and sugar and coffee and different kinds of cloth, besides yarns.

So the next morning when they were ready to leave, every burro they had with them was pretty well packed. Before they left they were asked if they would like to have a guard to go along with them. In case they were in any danger, they would have someone to show that they were the friends of the white man and they were not to be harmed, but since they didn’t see any signs of danger when they were coming over they refused to take a guard along. Having been granted all their wishes for things that they had wanted for so long, they were very happy when they left there.

They were two days on the road before they reached Ganado, and the night before they reached Ganado this boy, Hani, overheard the two men talking with some other man. This time there were three men sitting around the camp fire quietly smoking. The boy could not really understand just what they were saying because it was all in a whisper. Then, of course, he couldn’t help but move and when he did, one man rushed off and the other two men went to bed. One man was an outsider, a Navajo. The next morning the boy was more suspicious than ever, but still he could not ask his father what this night meeting was about.

So that day they traveled all day (on the other side of Ganado). On this day camp was made rather early and they said they wanted to get settled before dark. So they got everything ready before the sun went down, which was northwest of Ganado in the red hills. They said that they would have a good supper that night, so they cooked a great deal of their food that they had gotten at Fort Defiance – with bacon and some beef that they had brought along. Having an early supper, they said they would go to bed soon and would get up early in the morning, for they figured on reaching home the next night.

This man, Masale, the boy’s father, seemed very happy that night. Before going to bed they cut a lot of branches off the cedars and brush that was around and put them clear around the camp, as a windbreak, you might say. Against this they put their saddles and all the packs that they had. That night Hani kept awake quite a long time, but he could not stand it very long so he finally fell asleep.

During the night sometime, Hani thought that he was dreaming and that there was a heavy hail storm coming up for he thought that he heard the hail dropping. First he heard it dropping slowly and then faster. When he was wide awake he knew what was going on. They were being attacked and when he did come to, all the men were up. About this time his father spoke at the top of his voice in Apache, then in Navajo and then in Zuni. He was asking who it was that was attacking them. The boy did not forget where to have his bow and arrows every night, so when he did jump up he had his hands right on his bow. By this time arrows were coming from every direction. When Hani was well on his feet all the enemy rushed into the camp, and as this was during the night he did not know who was who. Anyway, he started on a run and they chased after him. It happened that some Navajo had a corn patch near there and in the corn patch he had some squash with very long vines. Hani thought the whole country was full of enemies, so he hid under the vines, breathless and excited. He heard his father make his last groan and he was very angry. Dead or alive, he decided to go back, but found himself with only a few arrows, two or three left. So he ran back to the camp and when he got there he found his father dead, with many arrows sticking in his body. His scalp was gone. He thought that before doing anything else he must find his arrows and he found them rolled up in his blanket. This little blanket was only half the size of a double saddle blanket. Now the enemy thought that he was one of their party so he was not shot at until he had shot at them. As the enemy followed him he ran backward, holding the little blanket in front of him to stop the arrows. The moon was just going down below the horizon and it was getting quite dark.

At first he did not realize that he had been shot, for being a good runner the enemy could not keep up with him, but when he got up to the hills they were rather too steep for him to climb, because he realized then that he was shot, one arrow in his stomach, one in his hip and one between his shoulders. He pulled out two, the one from his hip and the one from his stomach, but he couldn’t reach the one in his back. Well, anyway, he thought himself dead when he started to crawl up the hill. When he was halfway up the hill he cried for his dear life and prayed to his gods that if he should die, some day his skull would be found there. He didn’t know how many of the party were killed or saved; he didn’t know whether they were all dead or not. When he said his prayers, he cried some more, but he couldn’t cry very loud, for he’d rather die in peace than have the enemy find him and use a club on him.

As he was going up, it began to show that it was dawn. He could see the daylight over the horizon and he wished that he would not die. If the sun did com up in time, he believed that it would give him strength. Of course, he couldn’t help from groaning as he crawled up, and then he heard someone speak to him from the top of the hill, which scared him nearly to death and he thought some enemy had headed him off, so he did not answer. The voice came again and it was in plain Hopi. It said, “Are you hurt badly?” And he said, “Yes.” And then the other said, “Will you be able to make it up here?” But he said, “No.” So this other man came down and helped him up. When they got up he recognized this man and it was a man by the name of Mai-yaro. Well, this man said to the wounded boy that they would try to travel on together, as he was not wounded. He had been in the party, but had got away safely.

Hani told him to go on and leave him alone for he was done for and was ready to die, but this other man refused to leave him. He said that if the enemy should head them off and follow them, he would be willing to die with him. So they went on walking slowly, and while they were going along, another man named Tochi (Moccasin) joined them. He was hiding too. Hani asked them both again to leave him and run on home but they both refused. They asked him which of his wounds hurt him most and he said the arrow in his back hurt him the worst. So they thought they would pull this arrow out, but it was stuck fast in the bone. They tried it, but the shaft came off from the point. Then it was even harder to pull out. So they both tried their teeth on it and finally they pulled it out. One of these men was asked to scout ahead and the other to scout behind. So each man was supposed to be about one-fourth mile from the wounded man.

They were going very slowly. Finally they went down into another valley. It was about sunrise. As they were going along Hani saw a rabbit, a little cottontail on the side of the trail, and he wanted to shoot this rabbit because he said he was hungry and needed something to eat. Well, the other man said not to kill the rabbit. He said, “You belong to the Rabbit Clan and you can’t kill that rabbit. It might bring you luck if left alive. It might bring us both luck.” So he said, “Let the rabbit live.”

They thought of a spring around the point, for they were both tired and thirsty. Instead of scouting ahead, the third man, Tochi, had run home. When they got to the spring Mai-yaro would not let the wounded boy have a big drink, thinking that his stomach was injured. When they got kind of cooled off, Mai-yaro thought he would look back over the hill and see if the enemy was following. Before he left, he told the wounded man not to drink any more, for if his stomach was injured badly it would not hold water. But just as soon as he left Hani took a big drink and he felt much better.

Well, Mai-yaro went over the hill and as he looked down on the trail he saw a Navajo walking back and forth over the trail. He watched this Navajo for quite a while and he saw that he was very much discouraged. Well, finally, the Navajo turned back, so Mai-yaro went back to the spring and when he got there Hani told him he had had a big drink and felt better and he asked to have some more.

Then they both started back for the trail. This man, Mai-yaro, said he would go back to the trail and see what the Navajo was doing. When he got where they had seen the rabbit he found that the rabbit was gone. So he investigated there and found that the rabbit had gone over their tracks three times. So the rabbit had disappointed the Navajo who thought the men had passed him in the night long before daylight.

It was about the middle of the day, and it was hot, so they got in among some rocks. Hani was pretty well tired out and he said he would like to lie down for awhile and cool himself off. So he did lie down under one of the rocks and fell right asleep and the other man kept awake. Well, this man on the watch would close his eyes every little while and as he was doing this, he saw the shadow of a little bird on top of a rock. It was a little rock sparrow and it was very much excited about something. The man thought this was a warning to them, so they got right up and started on.

As they were going along it began to show signs that it was going to rain. Clouds were coming up. When it did cloud up they felt very much better, for they were cooled off. Then it started to rain. They thought they would not stop for shelter, but kept right on going while it rained. Finally, it poured down on them and there was a regular cloudburst. It rained so hard on them that it washed all the blood off Hani. He said that he felt much better, so Mai-yaro asked him to try himself out on a trot.

The man asked him if he felt his wounds hurting him and he said, “No.” Then he asked him to go a little faster, and then he asked him again how he felt. Hani said that he felt all right, so Mai-yaro asked him to run as fast as he could. Then he asked him again if the wounds hurt him. Hani said, “No,” and thought that he was well, so Mai-yaro said, “Let’s go then.”

Now when Tochi reached Walpi and told the people what had happened, Hani’s mother heard that he had been wounded badly and might die, so she wrapped up some piki and some sweet corn meal and she started out to look for him, all by herself. Now this was a very brave thing for a Hopi woman to do. She thought that she might find him dead somewhere and if she did she would roll his body under a ledge of rock or a bank of earth and cover him up with heavy stones and she would leave the piki and the sweet corn meal there for him.

But near the head of Jeddito Canyon she saw two men coming and then she recognized them for it was her boy Hani and Mai-yaro with him. And when they met they could not help but cry for joy. They hurried on home from there and when they came to the edge of the mesa south of Walpi, they saw clouds of dust in the valley coming toward them. They wondered what it was and thought it was an attack on the mesa. So they said to themselves, if there was an attack they would go on and meet the Navajo. So they went on and were met halfway and they found that this was a war party sent out to help them. When they met the whole party hurried back to the mesa and there at the foot of the mesa the whole village was crying for they found that only six men were saved out of the party that went to Fort Defiance.

Hani chose his godfather at the foot of the mesa, and of course it was Mai-yaro who was the first one to find him wounded, so instead of going to his own house he went with this man to be washed up and cared for the next day. When this was done he fasted four days. On the fourth day he was given his new name, “Hani.” From then on he always had in mind to get even with the Navajos in that part of the country, and so he did, for later he led war parties to that country often and brought back a scalp every time. He was considered one of the greatest and bravest men of the Walpi villages.

[#30] Hopi: Edmund Nequatewa, “How the Hopi Marked the Boundary Line,” from The Truth of a Hopi and Other Clan Stories of Shung-opovi. Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona Society of Science & Art, 1936, endnote 33.

The Hopi idea of committing suicide, or “sacrificing themselves” is difficult for a white man to understand, for it is very Oriental.

If a Hopi has enemies, or there is someone who is causing him great misery, he becomes so unhappy that he wishes to destroy himself. But he cannot do away with himself without “losing face” as the Chinese say, or in other words, losing his reputation as a brave man. Therefore, he looks about for someone, or some other tribe, who may be bribed to make a sham attack upon him or upon his village during which he will be killed. It is arranged with the enemy that he will be the first to rush out against them and as soon as he is killed the enemy will promptly retreat. Of course, a few innocent people may suffer in the melee, but this seems to be regarded only as a regrettable necessity.

A man desiring to make arrangements for his suicide will meet secretly with the “enemy,” taking him gifts and between them all the details of the affair will be arranged. It is agreed upon at this time that the victim shall wear all his valuables, such as strings of turquoise, etc., so that the hired assassins may thus receive the remainder of their pay from the body of the “victim.” And so it is that the Hopi suicide makes a glorious end!

I am told that many of the Navaho and Ute raids upon the Hopi villages were just such pre-arranged affairs.

[#7] Hopi: Edmund Nequatewa, “Making Arrangements for Suicide,” from The Truth of a Hopi and Other Clan Stories of Shung-opovi. 
Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona Society of Science & Art, 1936, endnote 32.

He spent most of his time at his family’s sheep camp and had little contact with anyone other than his brothers, sister, and mother, who occasionally brought things to him. Shortly before our arrival in the field in 1961, he shot at his mother and brother and then shot himself. His mother described the incident:

On Saturday evening we were over with A. At six o’clock his brothers came around from working to eat with us. I didn’t know anyone had been drinking. The boys decided to take me and A to a Squaw dance. I didn’t want to go so I didn’t. A was drinking, but I didn’t know it.  He didn’t say anything all this time. At nine o’clock he asked me for the keys to the Hogan, and I asked what was wrong. He just said, “What’s the matter with you?” He got an axe and tried to knock the door down, and he did. I asked one of my boys, “What’s the matter with your brother?” I was shaking blankets behind the wagon – the car was by the wagon – I heard the shot. It went right through the trunk of the car. The girl and I ran off. We heard four more shots. I don’t know any reason why he should get mad. He shot himself in the head, and he’s in the hospital. (p. 217)

In the crazy violence pattern there is a “heroic” element of honesty and willingness to take the consequences, an element more than slightly reminiscent of some of Dostoevsky’s more violent characters. The person is violent and almost inhuman in his brutality, but he knows what he is doing. He is deliberately reckless, and he acts in spite of the consequences to come. He does not avoid pain, suffering, and trouble for himself any more than for his victim. Although his victim suffers, he is ready to suffer also. Evidence for this readiness can be found in the relatively large number of suicides that terminate these violent outbursts. Perhaps the key to this violent transformation from Navaho normality is the suicidal needs that are part of this pattern. The recklessness expresses a willingness to die and to be hurt.

[#28] Navajo: “The social meaning of Navaho psychopathology and psychotherapy,” from Bert Kaplan and Dale Johnson in Ari Kiev’s Magic, Faith, and Healing: Studies in Primitive Psychiatry Today, New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964, pg. 217.

A Navaho believes that he can end his own life by wishing that he may die. Several times I have had Navaho girls or young men tell me that a grand-father or a grand-mother was going to die in a short time. When I asked if the grand-parent was ill, the usual response was, ‘No, he is the same as usual, but he wants to die and will live only a little while now.’ The old person seldom disappointed the expectations of his relatives.

[#27] Navajo: “Ending One’s Life by Wishing to Die,” from Franc Johnson Newcomb, Navajo Omens and Taboos. Santa Fe, Arizona: Rydal Press, 1940.

The sexual jealousy of Navahos has been mentioned. Some of it is undoubtedly conventional, but undoubtedly it is often very deeply and personally felt. Occasionally a rejected spouse will deliberately overstrain himself by carrying a huge rock – – ‘he hurt himself be cause he wanted to die.’ Marital quarrels and jealousy are indeed frequently ascribed as causes for suicide, exceeded only in number by the desire to escape going to prison or to evade other consequences of past acts. Third most frequent is grief over the death of a relative; fourth, brooding over incurable illness. It is interesting to note that, of known suicides (which are not very frequent), males outnumber females more than ten to one. Shooting is the most common method, hanging next in frequency. Jumping off a cliff was most usual in the past.

[#26] Dorothea Leighton and Clyde Kluckhohn, Children of the people; the Navaho individual and his development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947, pg. 111.

NATURE OF THE AFTERWORLD

 All informants agree that the afterworld is like this earth and that the inhabitants live there the same as do the living Navajos, in hogans, with cornfields, herds of sheep, horses, etc., and that they conduct ceremonials. Some say that there are more ceremonials than on earth (especially the “squaw dance”) and that they have a better time. Some informants speak of the land of the dead as a barren, desert place, but the majority mention vegetation and seem to feel that it is at least as pleasant as this earth. Some who called the afterworld “dark earth”… said that there is darkness there (“no shade, no light, nothing but darkness”…), but that the inhabitants can see (“just like we can”), …

DESTINATION OF WITCHES AND SUICIDES

The majority of informants say that all people go to the same place irrespective of the manner in which they died or of their practices during life…

Morgan’s informants, however, claimed that suicides and “mean people” (including witches) live by themselves and do not have any fun, and that the spirits of witches continue their practices in the after-life. “… what you do on this earth you will go on doing afterward.” “So if you kill someone, then your spirit will go on killing people.” We obtained some confirmation as to the perpetuation of customary activities in the following. “People who have shot themselves on this earth must carry a gun around all the time down there. People who have fallen off cliffs travel around just on rocks. People who have hung themselves are found only on trees down there” … The Apaches believe in a separate, gloomy place for witches where there is continual work (White Mountain), or poisonous plants, dangerous animals, lizards for food, etc. (Jicarilla.)

We obtained, therefore, no generally accepted ideas concerning punishment of the wicked in the afterworld, or a separate “hell” for the sinful. Apparently the disposition of evildoers (except for a minor idea pattern concerning those most strongly disapproved of socially, e.g. witches), is adequately covered by the idea patterns concerning their ghosts. One of Morgan’s informants did say that to be good in this life insured happiness in the afterworld, but this was during conversations concerning witchcraft and moreover the informant was known to have been influenced by Christianity, which may have colored her beliefs.

[#25] Navajo: “The Destination of Witches and Suicides,” from Leland C. Wyman, W. W. Hill, and Iva Ósanai, Navajo Eschatology. The University of New Mexico Bulletin, No. 377, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1942, pp. 37, 39-40.

The principal motives for our thirty-three cases of suicide were response to love-motives (grief over death of relatives, marital jealousy and quarreling) and avoidance of the consequences of crime or illness.18 The distribution was roughly equal for the two motive groups and for the two causes for each. These motives and causes are not unlike those existing in other cultures, Indian and white, but the whole group differs in the absence of certain motives common in other cultures, e.g., the economic causes of suicide in “white” society, and the revenge for mistreatment (and recognition-seeking) motives characteristic of the Iroquois.19

The behavioral action pattern of the sequence murder-suicide (or crime-suicide) and its accompanying avoidance motive may be a signal of a configuration something like “avoidance of trouble with white legal processes.” Definition of the pattern as major or minor, conformant or deviant, requires further study of its incidence and comparison with that of murder alone in the culture as a whole. Statements such as “sometimes person can do wrong things which will be very bad for him, then he have to kill himself” (AT) hint at its being conformant with the ideal pattern, but the consensus of disapproval of suicide and certain other statements (“some other people get into trouble, but they don’t kill self”—LU) militate against its conformity.

We were not able to learn of an abstract term for suicide. Navaho employs only reflexive forms of the verb “to kill,”20 e.g. ? άdi∙lyé—he kills himself, ^?άdi∙syí—he killed himself, etc. Father Berard Haile very kindly told us of these terms and added “Navaho prefers the verb ‘to suicide’ rather than a noun ‘suicide,’ perhaps because a personal action is involved in suiciding.

Thirds may also function in an impersonal sense so that ^?άdi∙lyé also means ‘there is suiciding, or a suicide,’ and so on for the perfective and future, which is pretty close to our abstract noun ‘a suicide’.” Dr. Clyde Kluckhohn tells us that in the Ramah region the third person singular perfective (^?άdi∙syí) is used as a noun (colloquially) to mean “the suicide,” i.e., “the man who committed suicide.”

Father Berard also told us that “There is another word that approximates suicide, namely ^?άdqhnaxqstą∙go, ‘when he or they put time conditions upon themselves’ or he exposes himself and takes chances on life. A person may feel himself cornered and is ready to defend himself to the last regardless of consequences. The inference is that such a person realizes that his action is suicidal but proceeds anyway. To induce another to such action is not approved.”

None of our informants had ever heard of an origin myth for suicide, nor any mention of it in any of the myths known to them. RA related the story of the first death from the emergence legend,21 and added “Many years after that, people started to make story people who kill self wouldn’t go someplace same but separate from other group down there.” One of Father Berard’s informants rationalized the descent of a man into Emergence Place to join the spirit of his former wife, in a version of the first death, as accounting for suicides today, but other informants said that suicides were comparatively rare.22 We have been able to find only one reference to suicide in the recorded legends which we have seen, and here there is some question as to whether it was suicide or accidental death, different versions varying.23 We may assume (pending future discovery) that suicide was not sanctioned in Navaho mythology.

If one were to judge alone from the statements in English of the interpreter the conclusion would be that our Navaho informants had a rather casual attitude towards suicide. A victim is merely an unfortunate person who could have lived longer if he had done the right thing. The act is not condoned, neither is it greatly condemned. The usual expression was one of mild sorrow for the victim, and mild disapproval of the practice. For instance; “People don’t like it—it’s a great mistake. Would be better for person not to kill himself. Especially young people. If they live like they should then they would die someday” (AT). “Kind of feel sorry about it. People who do that they bring it up among themself” (DCW). “The people think it pretty bad. But they can’t help it, after it happens. But feel sorry for person. Not very good thing to do” (JA). “Bad thing to do. They don’t try to take care of self, wife, or family like the others. They could live longer if they did. They supposed to live long just like others. Like way they do they just cut their life off” (RA). “If he didn’t do that he could live more” CY). “Pretty bad. People says they just wonder why people have to kill themselves like that. They have to die anyway someday, might just as well not do it” (TW). “Not very good thing. That’s all they can do, feel sorry for man who kill self” (LU). Navahos are sometimes prone to understatement,24 however, especially when speaking in English. Our conclusion would be then, that suicide is condemned (although perhaps not violently), mainly because one should not shorten one’s life and thus escape the responsibilities of life, e.g., caring for one’s family, but after the act considerable sorrow is felt for the victim and for his family.

We obtained ample confirmation of the idea pattern that the spirit of a suicide must continually carry the lethal implement in the afterworld25 (gun, knife, stick, rock—DCW, CY, LU), and that he is excluded from association there with the spirits of those who have died otherwise.26 Six of eight informants expressed this belief and explained it somewhat as follows. “People who kill themselves don’t go where other dead people go. In crowd people scared of him, try to push him off. No friend down there any more after kill himself. They carry gun, knife, etc., so those people down there afraid of visitor. Afraid they kill people down there” (DCW). “They go same place where all dead go but they don’t go into that crowd, they put them off, they afraid to have them with other people. They know these people who kill themselves they bad already so they afraid of those kind of people. They rather have them go separate from the others. All go same country where they can see each other but is different place” (RA). “They go different place. Have another place just from there. People afraid of him when he gets down there, have to put him off not to get in crowd. Still got with him whatever kill self with. Carry all time, want to kill man all time, that’s why” (LU). Only TW said that the spirit of a suicide might be earthbound (“where a man kill himself he have to be right there where he kill himself, no other place. Stays there always.”) but her further discussion of ghosts (“don’t know whether ghosts of suicides do that”—i.e., behave like earth people in the afterworld as do the spirits of others) indicated uncertainty as to her beliefs. The other two informants (FJ, CY) said that the spirits of suicides go to the same place as those of others, but they did not discuss the matter of association with the other spirits, nor did they say anything contrary to the idea of exclusion. Indeed CY said “after kill self they go on where other people goes and take their gun who kill self with (or knife) and people say they are danger after they kill themselves.”

Four informants (RA, CY, FJ, JA) stated that the usual burial practices are accorded to a suicide (dressing the deceased in his best clothes and jewelry, killing saddle horses at the grave, etc.) the same as to anyone else. These preparations for the afterworld and precautions against the return of the ghost²⁷ likewise betoken the beliefs that the destination of the spirit of a suicide and the behavior of his ghost (v.i.) are similar to those of any other dead person. Again these ideas are not concerned in the question of whether or not a suicide’s spirit is allowed to mingle with the others in the afterworld. In summary, the idea pattern is that the spirit of a suicide goes to the afterworld and can return thence as a ghost (v.i.), but while there it may not live with nor in the same place as the spirits of other mortals (because they are afraid of it).

This pattern is similar to that of the Hidatsa (“self-murderer will live isolated in the future life, but will not be less well treated”²⁸) but differs from the Iroquoian belief that suicides are earth-bound, excluded from the land of the dead.²⁹

Most informants thought that the ghost of a suicide is of the same nature as that of anyone else.³⁰ Three (JA, CY, DCW) definitely stated this as true, two (AT, TW) said that they did not know of any difference, and two (RA, FJ) did not express any opinion but their discussion of kindred matters indicated that they knew of no ideas to the contrary. One woman (DCW) did say that ghosts of suicides might “come around more often; don’t know just how often.” Only one informant (LU) said that the ghost of a suicide is more dangerous than that of someone else. “They more afraid about people who kill self. They mad all time, got mad when start to kill self. When come back already mad.” In spite of the reasonableness of this idea it seems to be a minor deviant pattern.

¹⁷ The only additional cause given was senility, an obsolete pattern according to JA (e.s.). Allied to this may be the reported belief that an aged Navaho can end his life by wishing to die; see Newcomb, p. 79.

18 The “lover’s leap” reported by van Valkenburgh (case 28) may have been a love-motive response, but according to the story it appeared more as an avoidance of censure for incest.

19 See Fenton, pp. 124-128. Navaho motives are strikingly similar, however, to those given for the Chiricahua Apache by Opler, pp. 250, 409, 472. For data from the Pueblo Indians, where “suicide is almost unheard of,” see Parsons, p. 75.

20 As in the Iroquoian languages; see Fenton, p. 85; “While this is typical of Iroquoian languages which generally have few abstract terms, it does show that the act was not frequent enough to cause the progressive reduction of the descriptive verb to an abstract concept.”

21 See Wyman, Hill, and Osanai, p. 36.

22 Haile, p. 412

23 The suicides by drowning during the separation of the sexes in the uppermost underworld, in the Emergence Legend: Matthews, p. 72; Goddard, p. 129. This episode would seem neither to account for nor sanction the practice of suicide by the Navaho.

24 Cf. Reichard, 1934.

25 Wyman, Hill, and Osanai, p. 39.

26 Ibid., pp. 39-40. This idea pattern should be added, therefore, to the summary of the assemblage of behavioral patterns of Navaho eschatology, possibly as a major pattern pending further study. See footnote 75, p. 40, and 5d, p. 46.

Leland C. Wyman and Betty Thorne, “Notes on Navaho Suicide” in American Anthropologist, vol. 47, no. 2, 1945, pg. 278.

“When Wakes-up-last murdered all of his children.” The murder of Brings-down-the-Sun’s daughter (Pretty Blanket) and her three children, and Wakes-up-last’s suicide, was the result of the sale of bad whiskey, consisting largely of wood alcohol, to Blackfeet Indians by white saloon keepers in the town of Cutbank, Montana. Their bodies lay for some time uncared for, because of the superstitious dread of touching the dead, until Menake prepared them for burial. Although the sale of whiskey to Indians is prohibited by United States law the saloon-keepers escaped punishment.

[#23] Walter McClintock, The Old North Trail: or, life, legends and religion of the Blackfeet Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968, pg. 504.

According to tradition, the Spirits of our People go to a place called the Sandhills after the person’s body dies. Good, bad, or indifferent as the person was when physically alive, so will the Spirit go on forever in the Sandhills. A decreased person’s most cherished possessions were usually placed with the body, so that their spirits could continue to be together. The same was true of a man’s favorite horse. It was often shot by his grave. Favorite horses that were not killed often died of starvation while mourning the loss of their master.

It is thought to take some time for a person’s Spirit to leave the body completely and go on to the Sandhills. For that reason, a person would sometimes be brought back from death if he had unusual spiritual powers and had instructed a close friend or relative how to recall them. For the same reason, few people would touch a dead person or go near his burial ground, especially at night. It is said that a dead person’s Spirit, or ghost, often tries to persuade others to accompany it. Widows who commit suicide by their husbands’ graves are said to have been persuaded to join them on their way to the Sandhills. At the Sandhills it is said that life goes on much like here, only in Spirit. The Old Way of life is the one that goes on, of course.

[#22] Arthur Hungry Wolf, The Blood People : a division of the Blackfoot Confederacy : an illustrated interpretation of the old ways. New York: Harper & Row, 1977, pg. 228.

If a girl was told she must marry a certain man, she had to obey. She might cry, but her father’s will was law, and she might be beaten or even killed by him, if she did not do as she was ordered. As a consequence of this severity, suicide was quite common among the Blackfoot girls. A girl ordered to marry a man whom she did not like would often watch her chance, and go out in the brush and hang herself. The girl who could not marry the man she wanted to was likely to do the same thing.

[#21] Blackfoot: “Suicide to Avoid Marriage,” George Bird Grinnell, Blackfoot Lodge Tales [c.1888]. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 1962, p. 216.