The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-08-11
NAVAJOS' SAND
PICTURES SAVED
Famous Pictures Made by Indian
Artists Are Preserved for
Posterity.

paintings Of the Nayajos have beer
preserved for posterity, and the ole
Indian prophecy Of "The Holy Ones
that when all the sand paintings are
forgotten and all religious chants die
out, the end of the world will come
can be laid aside In the minds Of those
who believe in it, for the time being
at least.
For the sand paintings have beer
transferred by artists to the walls OF
the Hotel Ell Navajo, recently dedi-
Gated here. In placing the paintings
! on the walls the artists were particu-
| lar not to depart in the slightest de-
gree from the original paintings made
by "White Singer and other eminent
chiefs.
In the art of the Navajos, painting,
music, the dance, poetry and the
drama are indivisible and all are the
expression of religion. The medicine
man is high priest, physician, singer,
ANGER and sets the stage for no mean
drama. He depends upon his memory
for every detail and teaches the cult
In turn to his followers.
The legend reads that when "The
Holy Ones gave the ceremonies to
man, the priests were e%njoined to
memorize them and destroy the orig
inals. This was done, not only to
avoid their falling into s~acrilegious
hands, but principally to write them
on +bo HEARTS Of living men.
Made in co!ored Sand.
They were therefore made In col
ored sand and destroyed the same day
they were made. Thus both paintings
and charts passed on from generation
TO generation, changing gradually and
many of them fading from the men,
DRY of ever the Oldest priests.
Thus many Indian medicine men
were called upon to assist in furnish
ing the true paintings that remained
in their memories. and these were
checked by Sam Day, Jr., of st. MI
chaels, an authority on Navajo Gus
toms, who contributed the. originals OF
the paintings and superintended the
WORK., So lldl NJ uCtdil "do ~
looked. These paintings, all of the sa-
cred rituals of the Navajo, are not In
tended to be pictorial, but every fig
ure, every line and every dot is a SYM
Dol. BY the use of symbols only their
painter priests appealed to the imagi-
nation and the heart.
One of the most priced paintings
adjoining the walls of Ell Navajo is
that of "Nayenezgani, the Man Who
Killed Fear" 1t is a sand painting OF
peculiar s~acredness to the Navajo and
has been made but rarely. Second In
religious Importance is the picture OF
the Ascension Of Dinae-e-di-gini" or
young Holy One"
Among the other sand pictures now
painted on the walls of the hotel are
those symbolizing "The Clouds" "The
Arrow Ceremony" "The Eagle Cere-
mony," ''The Sky Man." 'The Earth
Mother 1.-THE Bear" 1.-THE Pollen
and "The Harvest Beetle
Dedicated by Navajos.
When the Navajo tribe heard that
the sand pictures were to be trans
and perpetuated they insisted
on defeating the hotel with the ritual
their race and performed the ritual
1.-THE Blessing of the House."
In a previous ceremony the evil
had been thrown out and the
ritual contained no words of any evil /
Or unlucky thing or spirit. Instead all
that is good and beautiful was invited
TO take possession of the dwelling and
is occupants and leave no room for
sung during the procession Of the
medicine men, was an invocation to
he "Unnamed God" He was petit
toned to bless not only the house but
Ill its occupants and all that per-
aimed to it as far as the mountains
n the four sides OF it.
The paintings were blessed with a
pecial ceremony, the procession going
rom picture to picture, stopping for
he leaders to sprinkle each picture
With the sacred corr pollen.
After these particular blessings were
a number of other chants
pere sung and the medicine men
prinkled the meal from the sand pic
ures over the building and the spec
ators and to "the four rne of the ;
The remainder Of the sand
yas placed in buckskin bags and
rode forth to places remote !
the gatherings Of men, where
hey could hear 'The Echo" and there
uripd the bags e