The Navajos governed themselves, using a three branch system.
- Executive branch headed by President and Vice President.
The Navajo language is an Apachean language, classified in the Athabaskan branch of Na-Dene language family.
- Refer to themselves as Dine which means people; their language called “Dine bizaad” meaning “language of the people”.
- The language is a tone language (pitch helps distinguish words).
- Missionaries made up their spelling systems.                         In the 1930’s John Collier (head of Indian Affairs) and Willard Beatty (head of Indian  Education) started the Navajo alphabet, they got John Harrington, Robert Young, William Morgan and Oliver LaFarge to create the alphabet. 
- By 1939 the alphabet was finished.

Topography of Navajo land is characterized by arid deserts, alpine forests, high plateaus, mesas and mountains.
- They claim Southwest wonders, such as Canyon de Chelly, Shiprock Peak, Monument Valley, Chuska Mountains, and Window Rock.
- The land consists of 3 distinct climates; cold humid climate of the heights; the steppe climate of the mesas and the high plains and the warm desert.
- In New Mexico, bodies of waters include Little Colorado River, the Zuni River, the Rio Grande, the Rio San Jose the San Juan, the Gobernador, and the Largo (ran through Dine'tah, first Navajo land)
- In Arizona, the main stem of the Colorado River, the Little Colorado River and the Gila River.
- In Utah, they claim the upper basin of the Colorado River (most on the San Juan River).
The diet of the Navajos consists mainly of vegetarian foods.
Their principal food is mutton, boiled and corn prepared in many ways.
- Vegetables: a variety of corn, squash, wild onions and spinach, rhubarb, roots
- Fruits: Yucca fruit, apples, wild berries, peaches, cantaloupe 
- Grains/starchy: Kneeldown bread, fried bread, blue bread, tortillas, tamale, corn cake
- Fats: Sheep brain, Mutton fat, Blood sausage, ribs, Pinyon nuts
- Meat: Antelope, sheep feet, squirrel, prairie dog, tongue, beef, donkey, horsemeat, ribs, deer meat, liver, rabbit, wild turkey

Clothing they wore:
- Women: 2 piece apron effect about the waist, woven from yucca fiber or cedar bark.
- Men: breechcloths
- Pendants and moccasins were also worn, and when cold out, animals skins or woven yucca blankets were worn.
The hogans the Navajos used were traditional dwelling/ceremonial structures. They are dome shaped buildings, built with log or sometimes stone frameworks, and covered with mud, dirt or sod.
The primary weapons used by the Navajos included, a bow and arrow, club and lance. They also used feather-adorned shields.
The tools they used were wooden 🤬 and rakes for farming, spindles and looms for weaving, pump drills for boring holes (in turquoise and other beads). 
The Navajos Relied on chiefs and elders to provide leadership. 
- Chiefs were elected through families. 
- Historically 2 were elected, one for domestic leadership and one for war.
- The Navajo chief was named Manuelito (original name Bullet).
Religion was widely practiced with the Navajos. 
- Traditionally most rites were for correcting physical and mental illness.

- Some traditions relate emergence of the first people from different worlds underneath the surface of the earth.
- Ceremonies included public dances, prayers, songs, and artwork (Ex. pottery, weaving, dry-sand paintings, rug making dry).
In 1868 a treaty was signed.
- Navajo (Dine) Nation agreed to stop war against U.S. “Allow U.S officials to live within their lands and oversee their obligations to the Navajo, and permit the construction of railroads through their lands." 
The relocation of the Navajo tribe is known as the “Long Walk”.
- Happened between 1863-1866, more than 10,000 Navajo were forced to move to the Bosque Redondo Reservation at Fort Sumner (current day New Mexico).
- The U.S. military marched them out, over 250-450 miles (18 days long).
- 9,000 Navajos reached the fort, where 400 Apache already lived, many fought, starved and died as there were too many people there. 
Today the Navajo Nation is the largest Indian tribe in the U.S. Over 173,000 Navajos live on the reservation.

 

- Seminole women harvested crops of corn, beans, and squash.