Previous
Mesa
The Navajo are a Native American nation whose reservation is near the Jemez Pueblo. Navajo people generally refer to themselves Diné rather than Navajo. Ben Benally is a Navajo man.
Navajo Quotes in House Made of Dawn
The House Made of Dawn quotes below are all either spoken by Navajo or refer to Navajo. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
2. The Longhair, July 21
Quotes
[Abel’s] father was a Navajo, they said, or a Sia, or an Isleta, an outsider anyway, which made him and his mother and Vidal somehow foreign and strange. Francisco was the man of the family, but even […] the boy could sense his grandfather’s age, just as he knew that his mother was going to die of her illness. It was nothing he was told, but he knew it anyway and without understanding, as he knew already the motion of the sun and the seasons.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
6. The Longhair, August 1
Quotes
It made him glad to be in the midst of talk and celebration, to savor the rich relief of the coming rain upon the rows of beans and chilies and corn, to see the return of weather, of trade and reunion upon the town. He tossed his head in greeting to the shy Navajo children who hid among the camps and peered, afraid of his age and affliction. For they, too, were a harvest, in some intractable sense the regeneration of his own bone and blood.
10. The Night Chanter, February 20
Quotes
He was going home, and I wanted to pray. Look out for me, I said; look out each day and listen for me. And we were going together on horses to the hills. We were going to ride out in the first light to the hills. We were going to see how it was, and always was, how the sun came up with a little wind and the light ran out on the land. We were going to get drunk, I said. We were going to be all alone, and we were going to get drunk and sing. We were going to sing about the way it always was. And it was going to be right and beautiful. It was going to be the last time. And he was going home.
Get the entire House Made of Dawn LitChart as a printable PDF.
Navajo Term Timeline in House Made of Dawn
The timeline below shows where the term Navajo appears in House Made of Dawn. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
2. The Longhair, July 21
...father is, but other townspeople say that he was an outsider (they believe he was Navajo, but don’t know for certain). This marks Abel’s family as “somehow foreign.”
(full context)
...wait for dawn. When the sun starts to rise, they go outside and join the Navajo and Domingo elders. People begin to sing and dance, and wildlife run down from the...
(full context)
6. The Longhair, August 1
...usual, convincing himself that he is content and at one with the ancient land. Other Navajo families and people (who self-identify as Dîné) travel to Walatowa on horses and wagons for...
(full context)
...languages spoken by those who have traveled to celebrate. He appreciates the beauty of the Navajo people and the art they create.
(full context)
...from the plain. Most of the visiting families leave, except for a handful of young Navajo men who remain at a bar. At the bar, Abel and the albino man conduct...
(full context)
8. The Priest of the Sun, January 26
...are not of his world. He thinks of what his friend Benally told him about Navajo religious ceremonies that connect people to the earth, but the vast sea and spawning fish...
(full context)
10. The Night Chanter, February 20
...their respective reservations and eventually reunite with each other. Ben has taught Abel about some Navajo songs and the stories behind them. As people sing at the party, Ben wants to...
(full context)
...He sings a song about the son of the Turquoise Woman, a figure in the Navajo religion, and about the love the son feels for his horse. When Ben arrives at...
(full context)
Ben is startled that Angela has made up a story that closely resembles a Navajo legend. He relates the story his grandfather told him about Esdzá shash nadle, or the...
(full context)
