The Navajo Indian (1943)

A profile of Navajo/Diné social life, family structure, and culture. Activities shown: farming corn, sheep herding, preparing corn bread, children and family pets; weaving wool and yarn preparation, loom building, silversmithing, trading goods, and more. To license footage from this film for commercial use visit: www.travelfilmarchive.com 1940s, 1943, Arizona, plateau, Native Americans, American Indians, Navajos, Diné, Navajo people, herdsmen, sheep herding, sheep being herded by man on horseback and boy on foot using scarf to drive them to graze, Navajo adults and children, man using mule driven plow, corn field, man peeling back husk from corn, shucking, husking, woman wearing turquoise bracelets preparing bread made from cornmeal on blanket outside hogan while boy watches her, cooking, woman and boy filling corn husks with dough, stuffed husks placed under coal of outdoor fire and baked thoroughly to make cornbread, family sitting on ground eating from western pots and dishes, boy roughly playing with pet puppy, father instructing son in archery, boy petting lamb, woman weaving on loom, woman carding wool by hand with metal brushes, woman spinning wool into yarn by twisting and winding the fiber onto spindle-like stick, woman winding dried yarn into ball, woman and man setting up loom, warp being strung on loom, woman weaving in woof, blanket being woven into design credited to “spider woman,” man making silver and turquoise cuff, silver jewelry, woman’s hand modeling silver and turquoise cuff and ring, family traveling in mule driven wagon to trading post, family getting out of wagon and entering trading post, Navajo man shaking hands with white trader and leaving silver belt in exchange for desired item, family traveling back home in wagon