Encounter the People

Navajo Sandpainting

Navajo sandpainting ceremonies are held to cure illness and ensure general well-being. There are approximately fifty ceremonies, usually called "chants," "sings," or "ways," such as Blessing Way, The Mountain Chant, and Shooting Way.

Sandpainting © 2007 Nelson Lewis
Photo courtesy of MNA Ceremonies typically take place inside a hogan, the traditional six- or eight-sided Navajo structure. The door of the hogan, which serves as a microcosmic representation of the wider universe, always faces east. Ceremonies last from one to nine nights, with nine-night ceremonies being the most common. Activities include oral storytelling, singing, body painting, and sandpainting. Sandpaintings, like hogans, are aligned to the cardinal directions. In some cases the patient, or "the one sung over" walks or sits on the sandpainting and may apply parts of it to his/her own body. Navajo tradition warns that sandpainting materials and/or imagery may be harmful outside of the ceremonial context. Therefore, Navajo chanters erase or destroy sandpaintings after they are used in ceremonies.

Following this tradition, Navajos have been discouraged or even forbidden to make sandpaintings in permanent form or for non ceremonial use. Despite this proscription, many Navajos have made permanent sandpaintings on wooden boards or have woven them into rugs. To get around these restrictions and to avoid possible harm, some Navajos have produced altered, incorrect or partial sandpaintings in permanent form. In this way, the Holy People are not summoned—since they come only to correctly made sandpaintings—and so the chance of harmful effects is not as great.

There has been significant disagreement over whether sandpainting imagery should be exhibited or reproduced. Native artists’ resistance to the appropriation of that which is held sacred has taken a number of subtle but important forms. In the case of reproduction of sandpainting imagery by Navajo artists, slight alterations of traditional designs or translation of sandpainting imagery into media other than those employed in the ceremonial context, such as textiles or basketry, have constituted effective forms of resistance.

Text (c) 2009 Jennifer McLerran, Ph.D., Curator of the Museum/Museum of Northern Arizona

Additional Information

Websites:

Wheelwright Museum ( http://www.wheelwright.org )
Navajo Sandpaintings by Franc Johnson Newcomb ( http://www.navajosandpainting.org )

Readings:

• Bahti, Mark, Eugene Baatsoslanii Joe, and Eugene Baatsoslani Joe. A Guide to Navajo Sandpaintings. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2000.
• Griffin-Pierce, Trudy and N. Scott Momaday. Earth Is My Mother, Sky Is My Father: Space, Time, and Astronomy in Navajo Sandpainting. University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
• Newcomb, Franc J. and Gladys Reichard. Sandpaintings of the Navajo Shooting Chant. Dover Publications, 1977.
• Parezo, Nancy J. Navajo Sandpainting: From Religious Act to Commercial Art. University of Arizona Press, 1983.
• Reichard, Gladys. Navajo Medicine Man: Sandpaintings. Dover Publications, 1977.