Evening star., 1923-07-08
pAVAJ0S TO LIVE.
|NSANDPA|NT|NC
Famous Art Is Preserved for
e" {, Posterity in New Mexico
-
/, =. Hotel.
~ the Associated Press.

1ythe Associated Press
GALLUP, N. NJ, July THE ia
nous sand paintings of the Navajos
have been preserved for posterity,
and the old Indian prophesy of "The
Holy Ones" that when all the sand
paintings are forgotten and all relig-
ious chants die out. the end of the
world will come, can be- lai aside In
the minds of those who believe in it,
for the time being, at least.
For the sand paintings have been
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 par
ticular not to depart in the slightest
degree from the original paintings
made, by white Singer" and other
eminent chiefs
In the art of the Navajos, paintings,
music. the dance, poetry and the
drama are indivisibIe and all are the
expression of religion. The medicine
man is high priest, physician, singer,
dancer 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" give
the ceremonies to man, the priests
, were enjoined to memorize them and
destroy the originals. This was done.
not only to avoid their falling into
sacrilegious hands, but principally
to write them on the hearts OF liV-
ing men.
They were therefore made in COL
ored sand and destroyed the same
day they were made. Thus both paint
ings and charts passed on from gen
Grafton to generation, changing grad
ually and many of them fading from
the memory of even 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
chaels, an authority on Navajo Gus
toms. who! contributed the originals
of the paintings and superintended
the work, so that no detail was over
looked, These paintings. all of the
sacred rituals. of the Navajo, are not
intended to be pictorial. but every
figure, every line and every dot Is
a symbol. BY the use of symbols
only, their painter priests appealed
to the imagination and the heart.
One of the most priced paintings
adorning the walls Of FL Navajo is
that of "Nayene7ganf, the Man Who
Killed FearH 1t is "a sand painting
of peculiar sacredness to the Navajo
and has been made but rarely. Sec
ond in religious Importance is the
picture. of the Ascension of Dinae-
e-di-gini' or Young Holy One"
Other Painted symbols.
Among the other sand pictures
now painted on the walls Of the hotel
Ceremony" The Sky Man The
Earth Mother" THE Bear" "The
Pollon Boy" and THE Harvest
Beetle" -
When the Navajo tribe heard that
the sand pictures We're TO be trans
ferred and perpetuated they insisted
on dedicating the hotel with the
ritual of their race and perform d
Hen The Titual of THE Blessing of the
In a previous ceremony the evil
spirits had been thrown out and the
ritual contained no words of any evil
or unlucky thing or spirit. Instead,
invited to take possession of the
dwelling and it's occupants and leave
no room for evil spirits to return.
The initial chant. sung during the
procession of the medicine men. was
an Invocation to the Unnamed
not only the house. but all its occu-
pants and all that pertained to 1t
as far the mountains on the four
sides of it.
The paintings were blessed with a
special ceremony, the procession go
ing from picture to picture, stopping
for the leaders to sprinkle each pic
ture with the sacred corn pollon.
After these particular blessings
were invoked. a number of other
chants were sung and the medicine
men sprinkled the meal from the
sand pictures over the building and
the spectators and to the four
corners Of the earth" The remain
der of the sand was placed in buck
skin bags and couriers rode forth
of men, where they could hear The
Echo" and, there buried the bags.