Hogan

Navajo winter hogan

A hogan (pronounced /hoʊˈgɑːn/, from Navajo hooghan, IPA: [hoːɣan]) is traditionally the primary home of the Navajo people. It is also the center for their religious ceremonies. Other traditional Navajo structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house.

Origin

The Navajo work hooghan means "the place home." The religious song The Blessingway describes the first hogan as being built by Coyote (a mythological character common to many Native American cultures, based on the coyote animal) with help from beavers to be a house for First Man, First Woman, and Talking God. The Beaver People gave Coyote logs and instructions on how to build the first hogan, now known as a "forked stick" or "male" hogan (ách í ádeez áhí).

The poles of this first hogan are said to have been made of jewels: white shell, abalone, turquoise, and jet. After the poles were erected they were named in song: The South pole was called the pole of Mountain Woman; the West pole the pole of Water Woman; and the North pole the pole of Corn Woman. The spaces between the poles were filled with grass and earth and then the whole structure was sprinkled with cornmeal.

Types

A Navajo woman sits at a loom and weaves beside her sheep with a stone and earth hogan behind. Early twentieth century.

The "forked stick" or "male" hogan contains a vestibule in the front and is used only for religious or private ceremonies. This form of hogan is considered sacred to those who practice the Navajo religion, and is constructed in the traditional manner accompanied by ritual songs and speeches.

The "circular" or "female" Hogan (tsé bee hooghan) is the family home for the Diné people and is much larger. Although more substantial, this type is not a permanent construction. The Navajo historically were semi-nomadic and used these hogans for storage and shelter during the winter. In the summer they constructed simpler summer shelters that were little more than wind-breaks with a roof, one side being completely open.

Construction

Three main timbers of a hogan

The "forked stick" hogan is constructed from three interlocking forked poles which form the frame, with the fourth pole leaned against them making a conical structure. The spaces between the poles are filled with soil, grass, and bark, leaving room for a smokehole and an entrance, which faces east to catch the first rays of sun at dawn. A blanket was usually hung to cover the entrance.

The female hogan resembles a pyramid with five triangular faces. Earth may fill the spaces between the framework logs, hiding the five faceted shape and creating thick, winter-protective walls.

Navajos made their hogans in this fashion until the 1900s, when they started to make them in hexagonal and octagonal shapes. The change in shape may have been due to the arrival of the railroad. A supply of wooden cross-ties, which could be laid horizontally to form walls of a larger, taller home, allowed the retention of the "female" hogan shape but with more interior room.

The hogan has many shapes and styles, depending on individual taste, tools, and the availability of material from which to make it. It is usually round and cone shaped, but now they make them square. Large trees provide long timbers and thus substantial expansion of the interior; if only shorter logs are available different building methods are required. Logs can be piled up, curving inward, so as to form a domed roof. The four-legged hogan has four main timbers supporting the walls. When trees are absent, stone is commonly used, producing a circular styled hogan (Thybony 1998). Regardless of the shape or form, the door always faces east to welcome the rising sun for good wealth and fortune.

Navajo hogan - inside

Significance

The sacred hogan is used for religious ceremonies, in particular those of "The Blessingway," a ceremony to ensure good luck, good health, and blessings for those for whom it is performed.

A Hogan, a traditional dwelling of Navajo Native Americans. This hogan stands at Hubbel Trading Post National Historic Site, Ganado, Arizona.

Cultural taboos

Many cultural taboos are associated with the hogan and its use. Should a death occur in the structure, the body is either buried in the hogan with the entry sealed to warn others away, or the deceased is extracted through a hole knocked in the north side of the structure and it is abandoned and often burned. A hogan may also become taboo for further use if lightning strikes near the structure or a bear rubs against it. Wood from such structures is never reused for any other purpose by a Navajo.

Contemporary variations

Navajo hogan in Monument Valley

Today the Navajo commonly live in trailers or small houses and rarely build new hogans as dwelling places, although some older hogans are still used as dwellings. However, hogans remain important for religious and family ceremonies and continue to be built and maintained in the traditional way for this purpose.

Some tourist sites have taken to offering accommodation in hogans. For example, in Monument Valley, a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast and iconic sandstone buttes, there are Bed and Breakfast establishments where guests can sleep in a hogan built in the traditional Navajo way from juniper and ponderosa logs. These hogans have central skylights and either stone floors or the more traditional earth-packed floors.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Frisbie, Charlotte J., and David P. McAllester (eds.). 2003. Navajo Blessingway Singer: The Autobiography of Frank Mitchell, 1881-1967. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0826331816
• Griffin-Pierce, Trudy. 1995. Earth Is My Mother, Sky Is My Father. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0826316349
• McAllester, David P. 1987. Hogans: Navajo Houses and House Songs. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0819561851
• O'Bryan, Aileen. 1993. Navaho Indian Myths. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0486275925
• Pritzker, Barry M. 2000. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195138775
• Thybony, Scott. 1998. The Hogan: The Traditional Navajo Home. Southwest Parks & Monuments Association. ISBN 1877856932
• Waldman, Carl. 2000. Atlas of the North American Indian, Revised Edition. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 0816039755
• Waldman, Carl. 2006. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 9780816062744
• Wyman, Leland C. 1970. Blessingway. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0816501786

External links

Retrieved June 1, 2011.

• Navajo Hogans
• Sacred Mountains as a Hogan and Other Closed Systems
• Fire Tree hogan
• Navajo Hogans

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