A Navajo weaver, 1873. Their looms have changed little in the years since then.
Little by little the Navajos became acquainted with the world outside the reservation and learned its ways and advantages. Today their prospects for a better life are brighter. Oil, gas, coal, timber, and uranium deposits on their lands are being developed for the benefit of all the Navajos. Children are more eager to attend school, and many Navajos are now leaving the reservation to put their education to work at jobs in the larger community. The Navajo people are beginning to find a place within the Nation.
Despite these changes and prospects, many Navajo families are still seminomadic camp dwellers, following old traditions. Each family’s grazing land covers about 10 to 15 square miles. Within this area they have two or more hogans and corrals, built near suitable grass, water, and wood.
In winter the family moves to the foothills or mesa tops to be near a plentiful wood supply, for winters in the Navajo country are severe. The winter hogans, or houses, are constructed with considerable care by the men. Brush shelters are used for cooking and camping in summer.
Navajo headmen inside a summer brush shelter, 1898.
A Navajo cribbed (log-cabin) style hogan in the high pine forest in 1908.
A modern hogan built of stone and mud-plaster with a pane glass window, at Standing Cow Ruin.