The world, we are told, evolved upward through three levels of creation. We are introduced first to the black land where, although dominated by insects, life is essentially undifferentiated. The Navajo narration, accompanied by an English translation, explains that evolution brought us next to the blue land where animals, notably birds, were fed into the life cycle. Here the Navajos search and implore their neighbors for living space. In the yellow land, the last and final stage, security and strength comes to the Navajos and social order is established as the tribe elects its leaders and formulates the Navajo Tribal Council.
Man is one with nature and lives in harmony with all living things.
The experience and transformation the spectator undergoes is difficult to describe, for the impact is more than the sum of any single part of this ritualized vision. The nobility and simplicity of the theology astounded me. Much of the power of the experience came from a deep lamenting that we, as the other Americans in this country, have no single story or religious philosophy, as a collective people, that comes close to touching the splendor and dignity of Na Haaz Zan, a moving and tender utterance in the simplest of language and movement. Following Na Haaz Zan is Geiogamah s abrasive examination of the condition of the Twentieth Century Indian stripped of his ancestral grace and philosophical roots. Body Indian exposes the internal disintegration of the Indian community.